Red Heavens Beneath Me
By Cherilyn Ohlau
ZADR/PRAZR/TAGR
Invader Zim (2001-2006) is owned by Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon
Graphic and disturbing content; sexual content; this is an AU
"This is the thing that troubles me, for I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask. I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with its beautiful stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth-a world which now trembles before the King In Yellow."
― Robert W Chambers, The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories
Erase me
Kill me
Kill me
Kill me
Kill me
Nine Inch Nails (Eraser: Denial; Realization)
Prologue
The Sky Eye, The Prophet, The Vessel, The Kin, The Shell, The Kingdom...these are the terms used to describe Irken divinities of using cards to tell fortune when Irkens were merely still a small huddle of new species off in a distant planet. My people used these cards as one uses tarot, Irken fortune telling shares similarities but the difference is thin as a fine sewing needle; but, the fool and the end are present.
So too does our devil give a path to rebirth when the tower shall plunge into the depths. It will burn Irk to its bones, O Tallest, it will burn Irk to its bones unless the fool wakes up from his dormant slumber.
Our people should have never should have taken that Irken child under its wing. It has released the war path...but, let it be known the fool Zimalyon and Zim are one and the same.
Torticus III, Irken Diviner, Year of Cikta (Tallest Cikta and Tallest Kaine)
We do not allow our Irken brethren torturing our holy star child…
Zimalyon was your war steed,
but one cannot force a horse to water, and you cannot force a war horse drink from muddled waters.
Zimalyon is not your mule,
we are not ones to turn the other cheek at such insolence,
pray that our coming will be swift, I promise it won't be painless…
Zim felt sick in the week, he wasn't able to keep up with his studies in Magnet High School, much to Dib's surprise as did the other classmates; he was still known for his hourly bathroom breaks and piss poor excuses for leaving the classroom, but Zim was never actually sick, if he did suffer any he'd take medicine and be absent but Zim's condition was interfering with his motor functions and at times, when he tripped, he was unable to stand up.
Dib reluctantly volunteered to look after Zim, but he doubted with Zim so far off in his illness that he'd have a hard time meeting deadlines for any homework. Dib checked Zim's condition on the bed in the lab, he was hardly pale and was able to eat spoons without aid sometimes, but he did run a fever and was having cold symptoms. Zim at this point was too exhausted to argue that his nemesis was helping him. He just wanted to feel better and not feel as though he was vomiting or coughing the past hour.
"Dib, it's Saturday, go out…" Zim coughed.
Dib rolled my eyes, shaking his head, "I'm your nurse right now."
"Well I certainly didn't ask for you."
"Stop complaining, I volunteered," Dib pointed out, "Who's going to look after you in this state? You got three robots and computer. It's hopeless like that...I haven't been taking photos either, not fair to take advantage of a sick opponent; maybe when I was back to being twelve I would have gladly jumped at the idea. So...I'm not leaving."
Zim scoffed, turning over on his bed, "It's just some stupid cold virus! It should be gone in a week!"
"You've...kinda been here longer than that. It's August."
Zim looked over, speechless, "An entire month?!"
Dib looked perplexed and concerned, "Are you sick with some sort of alien flu?"
"How am I supposed to know? I had earth sicknesses before but...nothing like this," Zim sighed, "I'm sure it's nothing. You've always been a worry wart…" he noticed Dib's insulted expression, "Maybe if you just-"
"No, Zim, I'm not leaving," Dib said firmly, "But I will go out and get some food and medicine. Can you at least do me favor, you know, eat your veggies?"
"No. You know how peas are to me?"
"Urgh...fine, I'll get vitamins instead," Dib picked up his bag and made sure he was warm before leaving up the elevator. Zim slumped over, clutching his head. He hoped it was just a migraine; his head feeling like it was going to split open. Even though Dib advised him to stay in bed, Zim felt restless. He felt antsy and couldn't sleep at all. He got out of bed, wobbling against the floor as his vision distorted like a fish lens, it stretched and widened as a funhouse mirror while his feet trudged against a path he subconsciously followed...the transmission room.
Zim was on autopilot, he tried to question his movements, did his best to fight back and have control again but his brain was a fly to the spiders web; something underneath his skin purposely punched in the contact numbers of the Massive.
Please…
Please let me move…
I can't feel my legs, or my fingers!
Why can't I move? Let Zim move! Please! PLEASE!
"What? Zim's contacting us?" Purple yelled, "But we're in the middle of heading to a meeting...the control brains have gone haywire! Can't you just put the pipsqueak on hold, and he can contact us later?" The navigation drone, Toka, looked extremely apologetic. He expected his leaders to react this way, most of Zim's transmission were either left on the back burner, treated as jokes, or were met with blase indifference; this case was different and even made the navigation team worried.
"Er, we can't put him on hold…" Toka replied hesitantly.
"Why not?!" Purple snapped.
"The hold buttons are stuck."
"All of them?! Seriously?" Purple huffed, "Mute his number!"
"That's just the problem, my Tallest. The boards are malfunctioning after we received this call. There's no possible way to cut his transmission without an emergency reset, and we're not on a planet surface."
Purple sighed and looked at Red, "What do you think it is? A virus?" he asked. Red looked to be in deep thought, trying to take in the situation. "It's gotta be a Vort virus or some sort of powerful bug!" Purple added. Red held his head.
"The Massive went through a major security overhaul after Zim's virtual hijacking; there is absolutely no way Zim can puncture our computer system, no less make all the boards break," Red explained, "Okay, let's just take his call and-" the lights on the ship flickered and blew out like candles. A navigator pulled down the emergency backup power level only to be met with a mechanical groan.
"Powers out, and backup is on lock!"
Red shivered. The only thing working was the transmission monitor and the accept button blinking despite their being no power. What was powering them like this? Red didn't want to know the answer. He glided over and tapped the enter button. The darkness from the lights faded into a red hue, as Zim's figure was on screen; he carried an eerie demeanor on his body language. Zim's head tilted slightly with a scowl on his face as if he could see through them, it felt like a child tired of its toy, or a cat that had grown tired of seeing a glass cup on its sitting place; an expression cloaked in boredom, disinterest, and loathing.
"M'kal morta'l zekeen warsho'n…"
"What language is that?" Purple asked.
"Irksa, ancient Irken. I thought that language was dead…" Red replied.
"How does Zim know old Irken? We're the same age-"
"That's not Zim."
Zim chuckled, a smug and calculative grin on his face. Zim looked at them, but focused on Red and Purple, with the monitor as big as it was they felt incredibly small only because he gave a sensation of ready to crush them in his claws if it wasn't for the screen and distance. "Ahh, I forget...you are the newer generation...I'm sorry for this sudden call on my part; I'm merely borrowing our little ones body, if only briefly. I would have contacted you myself...but you're not on a surface, and let's face it. This is the only way I can get your attention…" Zim said his voice sounded deep and feminine, yet it was echoing at different frequencies, multiple people talking in sync at the same time in a crowded room like echo.
Red glared, "State who you are and explain why you're contacting us."
"My name? You wish to know my name? Your simplistic Irken tongues wrapped in fats and sugar wouldn't know how to say a name like mine. Sure, we are connected but we came first, from the universe's first lungs, we see the horizons spine and the beating star. You are children compared to me; but I will give you a name what your forgotten father's and mother's have called me before you were reduced to worms...Ryda."
"That's...oh, that's old mother," Purple said tapping his chin, "Ryda means old mother, like a grandma?"
"Perhaps...as a rough translation but I am not here to give lectures. I've seen enough from your end, even after I gave my warning...but I cannot blame you. I have been sleeping, waiting, and have seen the child I gave, was not worth it. My Tallest, I have altered memories for as long as I can remember...are you aware of Zim's chaotic nature?" Zim sighed, "We placed too much of Zimalyon's data, or rather, himself. Our powers do not correlate well with cheap technology."
"Zima…?" Red looked to Purple as he shook his head.
Zim glared, "The War Steed, the God laced in bloodshed in a red veil and blood soaked armor. He who causes stars to die, yet is petty and foolish but a rotten old God who only wants to see your worthiness."
Red's claws traced on a power plug.
"I will make sure, the War God splits the sky and devours you."
Red yanked the plug and the monitor shut off. He slumped to the ground, his body shaking underneath his armor. Purple tried to comfort him, only for the Tallest to push him away in fear
"Purple...I remember now. I remember learning about Zimalyon!" Red strained.
The skies do not belong to you,
They belong to me, your armada is miniscule…
Zimalyon was born from the brightest star and ate the selfishness of beings wrapped in gold…
You may think the crown belongs in your hands, but you, you have no need for it.
My son, my star, the three headed black lamb of the darkest sea…
Do you remember the milk I had used to feed you.
You will grow again. Take my crown. It's yours.
Zim could barely feel his conscious, once he felt control again, his head was aching but that was the least of his problems. "Master, an unknown source override your program inside your PAK. The data is of unknown origin and likely a virus, however, scans show it to be a slither of a percentage of it being a PAK virus; new data and programs have been released. It seems this new data had been locked in since birth. This data is not coded to your PAK." Zim wanted to bark at his computer AI for letting it's report be so long; being knee deep in denial in thinking it was just garbage data like all PAKs had carried just a little in the interface, it did nothing to ease the anxiety that the problem wasn't inside the hardware. Zim slowly stood up.
"Where's the extra data?"
Zim heard the whirr of machinery as another monitor was presented hovering in front of him. "Prior Brain Patterns" and "Current Brain Patterns" were in Irken with a pattern reading of Zim's brain like an X-ray, prior had globs of blue, purple and red, a typical Irken brain function but the current looked to be giving ripples and little bursts of yellow. Zim didn't understand as much as he should, experimenting and tampering with brains was the usual routine but trying to think of this from a medical standpoint...gah, this just wasn't his field.
"The data is inside my head?" Zim said perplexed, "Memories?"
It was a long shot but Zim contacted Prisoner 777 after. It was a long stretch but he needed something to grasp or understand, the Vortian's were passed allies who helped make Irken technology; Zim figured 777 would know something in his species history to explain this anomaly. 777 was startled to hear Zim so frantic, and it wasn't out of rage or being demanding; the fearful tone that made Zim's voice crack made the Vortian step back a little.
"Whoa, now, now Zim...don't get an aneurysm on me...I'm just your hostage," 777 did his best to calm the Irken.
"Your people helped make our technology, even long ago, do you know anything about this?"
"The correlation between the PAK and brain? Well, that's pretty complex on its own since Vortian's don't rely on PAKs ourselves, but we are surprised Irken's never questioned about never wondered about which brain you use more, your PAK or your actual muscle," 777 explained, plainly.
"So you're saying its from my actual brain…"
"That's a strong possibility if it's a read over and not into the actual code. You said your computer diagnosed this after your black out?"
Zim trembled a bit, "Uh, black out and paralysis. I couldn't move myself, I was moving, but...it wasn't me! When I came to…" 777 looked even more worried even though Zim and himself were just business clients, nothing more than Zim asking for codes and blueprints, he didn't like this.
"Zim...go to Irk, or find a Vort who can help. You obviously need medical help. Did you read your brain patterns?" 777 asked. Zim nodded.
"It looked weird," Zim answered.
"Was it pulsing red?"
"No, some sort of ripples and little yellow blobs."
"That's not the typical reaction to a possible parasite. Well, I still suggest getting medical help, or at least find another Vortian older than myself, but it's gonna be hard since you know…" 777 sighed a bit, sounding aggravated. Zim reluctantly thanked the prisoner before saying goodbye, only for another call to come in from the Massive. Red and Purple came on screen, looking as if they were ready to start an argument but realized Zim was back to normal and released the biggest exhale of relief Zim had heard from his leaders. Zim looked even more confused.
"Oh...oh good...so you're not possessed by weirdo lady...anymore, you're still stupid, right?" Purple breathed.
"Possession?!" Zim exclaimed, "My Tallest, you're using terms only the Dib worm would babble about. We are a scientific advancing species; earth has ghosts...or at least that's what Dib says. So we're perfectly safe."
Red looked down, biting his lip, "This information wasn't included in our PAKs, I had to contact the Preservation Archives to look into this myself once power was back online. It's, uh, pretty...err…"
"Well, I definitely feel smarter but I also want to run and use the bathroom after learning that, " Purple said bluntly.
"Then go pee if you're so frightened," Red barked.
"You mean I get to leave the conversation?! Awesome!"
"It's a bathroom break, not a vacation, Pur-he left," Red sighed, "Doesn't matter. We still need to discuss this before Irk was Irk, it just a meager planet of very little resources and back then older Irken's before us were still in clans and were very superstitious. We...used to worship these giant gods from the space above, and rites and pilgrimages at night. So, before Irken's could get their feet off the ground, we heavily relied on deities, a little too much."
"What does all this have to do with my black out?!"
"I-I'm getting there...Irken hierarchical societies had oracles, or haruspex, um, fortune tellers and prophets, putting it bluntly," Red explained, "Before we established the Tallest ranks, we worshipped sky giants in a way."
"Sky giants? You mean like what the humans call gods and deities?"
"This probably predates far longer than those humans, no less their planet, they might also be older than Irk or the universe itself...oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. They came to us when the sky split many, many years ago, they brought us a lot of things to our people including knowledge; during the Fuktanger Wars...scriptures say Zimalyon came on a four headed steed that had scales and breathed fire. He made Irk burn for ninety days and impaled the surface of the planet...he was a very scary war God."
Zim slowly caught on but he let out a small laugh, "So Zim has carried the name of an old God, it's flattering but doesn't explain anything."
Red sighed. He too noticed things just didn't add up. "Zim, you sure nothing else happened after your contact with us?"
"My brain has abnormal readings, I was suggested to seek medical."
Red paused, "That's for the best. Oh, but Zim, before you hang up...does the name Ryda mean anything to you?" he asked. Zim shook his head, "A-all right...just checking…" the monitor cut off the transmission. Zim went back to his bedside just as Dib walked in, what happened before he came, Zim didn't tell; he felt dragging Dib into this would worsen matters as this felt his an Irken centered issue. Dib was relieved to see Zim's flu had lightened after a week of medicine and drinking soup, Zim however did not share his enthusiasm. He still made calls to an Irken doctor who lived not far from where the galaxy earth was drifting in. He might've told Dib he was better, but it was a bold faced lie, his brain patterns and headaches were still there. Humans can only read what's on the surface.
The Control Brains on Judgementia looked like boiling pickled jars by the time the Tallest reached there, each courtroom had water leaking out or, the boards containing their life circuits were sparking with black smoke swelling from overloaded chords. It looked like something had caused them a great deal of shock as their muscles tried to move, they moved slightly like invertebrates as their brain tissues tried to grow limbs, only to deflate like a balloon, and their once metallic stoic voices were nothing but distorted screaming; nails on the chalkboard couldn't compare to a Control Brain who had found the urge to cry and howl. How could a muscle as large and unfeeling could scream without vocal chords? They screamed mentally, and it echoed through the system. They wanted to flee from something, but Red and Purple couldn't sense it.
"This isn't normal behavior…" Purple said in concern.
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Red replied sarcastically.
An Irken Maintenance Worker jogged over to the Tallest and saluted, "Sirs, my men, I, and Vortian engineers are looking into the problem right now, and we're pumping sedatives into their tanks to help calm the Brains down while we tend to cracks on the bowls and fix the boards." Red looked around, trying to figure out the source that had made the Control Brains so hysterical and unstable that they would rather die than stay in their tanks. Purple was thinking the same thing, and looked at the worker.
"So...what made them go insane?" Purple asked.
"Hell if I know," the worker shrugged, "I just maintain them and make sure they don't explode from the inside, but we did find something strange within their interface, someone hacked into all of their computers and implanted an ASCII code into the Brains."
"Red, what's an ASCII?"
"It's a type of coding, text inside computers, communication devices and all that," Red explained to Purple, "Since the Control Brains are part of a large computer system, somehow someone hacked into them without triggering the alarm, put the coding in, and that maybe messed them up...I think."
"Well, code is just code," the worker said, "At least this was just partially the cause, but it's not a virus or anything; something just scared them."
"Well what else did you find?"
"Barrier feed indicate a piercing low frequency was detected. It was somewhere between an earthquake and a military radio frequency."
"That low, huh?" Red sighed, "Did you trace it?"
"Tried to, I tell ya, I thought it was some sort of ghost ship or an old malfunctioning satellite or probe...but the weird thing is, the tracing just pointed everywhere. I checked the machine myself, it works fine, but there are multiple dots clogging up the screen. It wasn't from a planet, it kept pinning the sky."
I will make sure the War God splits the sky and devours you…
Red slumped to the floor, breathing heavily, feeling his body trembling and shivering as the pieces were presented before him, coming to realize Ryda was much bigger than he was, she wasn't just someone who had the power to take over Zim's body, and realizing that she was truly real broke him. Red slowly began to chuckle, before bursting into laughter that was so forced and painful that Purple could do so little to calm him.
Ryda wasn't on a planet, she was within space itself, the tallest one could ever reach in those black sea heavens of crystals and flames.
Red was aware she was a deity but not an actual one, what broke the brains had broken him as well.