Base
With a few hours left until class gets out they need to strategize.
After the two ate, they met down stairs, bumping into Blue along the way. Arriving in the labs was a very much awake, cloned Marry in our Mary's old clothes.
"Woah." Mary startled. "It's one thing to know about it, but seeing it is one thing entirely…" She cautiously walked over.
"Imagine how I feel!" The clone countered. Mary winced.
"Sorry."
Zim just let them talk before interrupting. Standing before the clone, he crossed his arms.
Time for business.
"Mary. What do you remember and where do those memories end?"
She lowered her head to think for a moment.
Looking up, she smiled a brittle little thing.
"I remember yesterday following you to the membrane residence. Learning about Dib… I remember coming here last night. Then there's that vision. It's foggy from that point, but I remember standing before a giant ring-thing and arguing about smoke and lasers?" She ended amused, facing Purple.
Purple just grinned, having won that argument.
"But you remember that vision, yes? So can you guess why we made you?" Zim gestured with his hand as he spoke.
She faced the real Mary.
After a moment, she smiled.
"I'm here for two reasons. One to test the time travel theory with clones. Two… I'm going to die so she doesn't have to."
It was silent for a moment, but they all dodded at that.
"Thank you." Mary whispered.
Clone Mary simply smiled and nodded. Facing Zim, so he can continue.
"Indeed. Now, we simply need to finalize our plans to make sure we are all aware of our roles." Everyone stood at attention.
"First, our end goal. The entire point of what we are doing." He stood before them. Both demanding their attention, but also shrinking in on himself. Purple, noticing his lack of words, walked over to pat his shoulder.
"We are going back to the past to fix our mistakes." Zim gazed at him at 'our'. "Through a combination of events, the fault in this future lies in myself and Red, as well as Zim and Dib. The four of us are responsible for the mess we are in."
Zim remained quiet, but eventually nodded in agreement.
"There are many ways we can do this. But first, now that our clone is awake and stable, we should first test the machine before anything else. Say, an hour in the past for example. We should test it both with the real Mary as well as the fake. Then Stell or Blue as the Most recent of Irks, followed by myself or Zim as the oldest of Irks. We need to cover our bases on what works and what doesn't."
"I agree with Purple." Mary stepped up. "It makes the most sense so we're not wasting our time. Question though: Should I try it with a PAK? Or once with and once without? Same with my clone."
Purple and Zim shared a glance. Then nodded. Zim stepped up. "Yes, we need to cover all our bases. A quick in and out."
With that, they walked back down to the device. Gir flew off somewhere before meeting up with them with a large bag when they got down there.
Zim, seeing a Piggy shaped indent, both snickered and cringed. Remembering all the injuries he bestowed upon the many younger Dibs he tried to kill.
His shoulders slumped a little at the guilt.
Mary looked between Zim and Gir's bag wondering about what he was guilty about now? She grew very concerned for him the more she learned about past events.
Frankly, she was impressed with how mentally stable he even is!
~/~
The Test.
It took about 10 or so minutes, but they all pitched in to get it started, before the light emitted brightened the room considerably.
Once satisfied, Zim brushed himself off before shutting the consul and stepping away after setting it for an hour in the past. It showed the room empty and dark.
"Alright, first. Gir?"
Looking to his old friend, Gir grinned before taking… what looks like an entire bag of stuffed piggies…
He took one, wrote the current time on it with a marker he dug out from his head, and chucked it into the device. It switched places with a random tool dropped on the ground (which vanished) to switch with the piggy.
They followed where it landed before Teal and Nova went after it on this side near the back wall. Chuckling as the duo raced to find it first, Teal became the victor. After finding it, he extended his legs to rise higher than the cloth-covered devices surrounding him, he gripped it and waved. Then he threw it back to Zim.
Turning it to show the others, he showed them the time Gir wrote.
"Where did that tool go?" Stell asked.
Zim shrugged. "I'm not sure… When I used this before as yet another way to kill the Dib…." He grew angry out of habit. They rolled their eyes at that. "The objects Dib held or used were switched with these piggies. They were the only things that the device would allow at the time."
"Is that still the case?" Mary startled, then what was the point of these clones?!
"No. When we worked on it this morning, I figured out what was wrong and fixed it. Remember, at the time, I used Professor Membranes designs, not bothering to customize or fix it."
She smirked. "And now that you have an extra three thousand years worth of experience…"
"It was a simple matter to fix." Responding with a smik of his own.
The others just smiled. Of course he did…
"Now, for the actual tests." Turning serious again. "So there aren't multiple versions of us wandering around, I'll set it for 10 minutes before we arrive here. That way, we will simply hide under one of these coverings and wait for us to pass through and continue testing. Understand? Whoever does NOT go through, will simply wait for the others to go in-"
"And we go Boo!" Gir randomly jumped on Purple wearing the bag that held the piggies. Now a pile on the floor.
The kids snorted/laughed at Purple's startled expression.
Jumping over to Zim, Zim just gave a shit-eating grin and fist-bumped Gir.
"Your face!" Mary laughed as Purple grumbled.
Calming down they all lined up.
It went, Clone-Mary, Mary, Stell, Purple. The rest will wait a moment before going in as well.
~/~
10 Minutes, Pre-Arrival
In the darkened room, three devices vanished.
Scattered around the room was…
Purple laying flat on the ground in the corner staring up at the darkened ceiling in shock.
Zim knelt next to a larger device in wonder, he made it?
Hearing movement on the other side of the device, he saw a confused Mary. The one in a dress. NOT the clone.
Blinking rapidly, he also saw Purple lying down some distance away, also in shock.
Zim whipped around, almost tripping over Gir's Piggy he threw, before even going so far as to scale the wall with his PAK legs to get a better view of the room.
Only they made it.
Why…?
He was so in shock, he almost missed the sound of talking coming from the hallway. He and Purple quickly hid, while Zim jumped down to grab Mary and holding her in his lap as he yanked a cloth over them.
As the group went over the details of the test, Purple easily snuck closer to the duo.
Using hand gestures to communicate, they were trying to figure out why just those three made it. Neither figuring out.
Mary just sat there stunned.
Here they were going on and on about clones making it through because they were seen as objects, due to the Time-device's original design, but…
Them making it through doesn't make sense!
And-!
Stell and blue…
Hell, not even GIR made it through! You would think Gir, Nova and Teal would make it through, but nope!
Was it whatever it was that Zim fixed?
But also, if it really IS just them able to go through the gate, she needs to rework her plans.
The BIG change:
She gets to go to the past with Purple and Zim.
Like, 3,000 YEARS in the past!
Or... 3 years in the past, her brother flashing before his eyes.
Very painfully, grudgingly, she mentally shook her head.
No.
No matter how much she wants her brother back, there are MUCH bigger things to worry about. All of which was long before they were ever born.
She felt Zim's arms tighten around her, apparently her face was an open book.
She snuggled into his arms as he held her more securely in his embrace as they waited for them to pass through the gate.
Why does she keep winding up in his arms lately? It's nice… she actually feels like a little kid in his arms.
~/~
Test Completion
Clone Mary was confused why she wound up turned back around in the lit up, occupied room.
Stell screeched her confusion. As the rest of them filed back out, they looked around at who's missing.
Gir stood silent. Accepting.
Clone Mary looked at him, before looking around.
Zim's gone, but Gir's still here.
Oh.
Oh…
She walked over, knelt before Gir and opened her arms. He looked up before quietly walking to her and gently returning the hug.
Around this point, the others saw and connected the dots.
Nova and Teal joined the hug.
Blue shook his hands. Then he yelled out to the room behind them.
"I think it's safe for you to come out now!"
Zim, still holding Mary, and Purple quietly made their way over.
Zim and Gir shared a look that only those that knew each other as long as they did could ever share.
Taking in a shuddering breath, Zim refocused them on the task at hand.