The Silent Killer

"Of course it'd be you who caught one of those slippery maggots!" the sergeant commented as he approached the Tallest who was standing in the entrance to the Fortress of Pain.

Red shrugged. It hadn't been that difficult to "capture" Sevai.

The Invader was obviously a defective member of his society or something. Plus Sevai himself hadn't really put up much of a fight.

What did non-Irkens even call their defectives?

The Hobos were a race of militaristic cyborg people. They were fairly tall, enjoyed causing pain, and they were willing to train whoever was sent to them. That's why they got along so well with the Irken Empire.

The sergeant was wearing something that looked like a mechanical suit over his chest, though it very well could be attached to his body. One of his eyes was artificial, and his right arm was definitely mechanized.

Hobos also yelled a lot. Their style of communication consisted mostly of yelling, talking way louder than they needed to, and screaming insults.

He'd try his best to ignore all of that... at least for now...

"He's in here," Red motioned inside the building. "Did you bring everything?"

The sergeant held up the medical bag he was carrying in his mechanical hand.

"It doesn't look like much, but it's enough to patch up recruits who get mauled by the Hogulus!" He replied. Then he stepped past the Tallest into the hallway. "I assume he hasn't been gutted more than that, otherwise you would have asked me for a different bag!"

Red watched impassively as the sergeant crouched down beside the Invader and placed the bag of medical supplies on the floor.

"You said you changed his bandages right!?" the sergeant questioned, rubbing his chin.

"I did a few hours ago," Red responded, crossing his arms as his antennae flicked back. "You took a while with the whole getting here thing."

"They've soaked through again!"

Red frowned. "How? I just..." he sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Don't tell me it's a horrible and useless genetic thing his people have."

Over bleeding didn't seem like a very good adaptation to have in their ranks... they were already incredibly weak and useless without their technology. If they were genetically predisposed to bleeding to death, then they shouldn't even be alive.

"I don't know about that!" the sergeant stated before turning to look at the Tallest. "I need you to keep him sitting so I can work at this!"

"Just don't get his blood on me," Red insisted as he approached the sergeant.

"I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises! This guy is bleeding like a Guntzen-beast when it-"

"I know you people like spewing insults and making gross references, but can you stop?" Red interrupted. He knelt down beside the sergeant, making sure not to touch the guy at all. "I'm barely tolerating your loudness as it is..."

"You know that little follower you sent me nearly got me gored to death right!?"

"I know what Zim did."

Him and Purple had watched with keen interest as Zim completed each and every challenge. They'd lost a lot of monies gambling on how they thought the defective would die. Much to their disappointment, Zim didn't end up dying. He didn't even come close.

"I lost a leg in that fight!" the Hobo exclaimed, gesturing to his mechanical leg.

"Yeah. Whatever. It's too bad a Hogulus ate your leg, but I kind of have more important stuff to worry right now," Red responded; his voice laced with lack of caring.

Anything would be more important than listening to a Hobo instructor complain about Zim...

Red reached over and grabbed Sevai's arm. He pulled on it, raising the Invader just enough so he could slip his own arm underneath and bring Sevai into a sitting position.

The Invader whimpered softly and his eyes fluttered open. They were glassy and unfocused. His skin was a sickly pale green colour...

Shlit. Sevai really was in bad shape. How could his health be deteriorating this quickly?

The sergeant began unwrapping the bandages while Sevai moaned and squirmed in discomfort.

It smelled like rotting flesh... and when all of the bandages were removed he saw the reason why.

The injury to the Invader's chest was... corroded? Was that the right word? The stab wound looked bigger than it did before... and it was bleeding a lot... and the skin around it was rotting.

"What did you stab him with!?" the sergeant demanded in a loud voice, glaring at the startled Tallest.

Red had one of his sharp metal appendages emerge from his PAK.

"It was just one of these," he responded, shoving it near the sergeant's face. He added: "I stabbed someone else with it too, and this definitely didn't happen to them."

"Then did you recently coat it in poison soldier!?" the sergeant yelled. "Because this Invader," he pointed down at Sevai. "Has been poisoned by something extremely nasty! It's rapidly dissolving his insides!"

"What?" Red questioned, frowning.

Why off Irk would he use poison for anything?

"Do you think I regularly dip these things in poison or something?" he questioned, raising an antenna while squinting an eye.

The sergeant managed to shrug his large mechanical shoulders somehow.

"I don't know what you Irkens do in your spare time."

"We don't use poison," Red insisted. "Poison is boring. Slashing someone to death or blowing them up is better. We also keep these PAK-appendages inside our PAKs most of the time. Do you know how gross it would be to have something dripping in there?"

"If you coat it effectively it won't drip!"

The Tallest let out a long sigh.

His antennae hurt from listening to the Hobo's constant yelling, and now he had to deal with this guy's stupid logic. He also really wanted to smack Sevai for not saying anything about being poisoned.

He kept calm while the Hobo bandaged Sevai's gross looking injury.

Once the sergeant was finished, Red jerked his arm away and let the Invader fall to the floor.

Sevai cried out as soon as his back struck the hard tiles. He moaned as he managed to raise his trembling arms to brace himself against an attack.

Red shoved them back down which seemed to cause Sevai an immense amount of pain because the Invader screamed and writhed before begging earnestly for forgiveness.

"Hey Tallest," the sergeant's hand landed hard on Red's shoulder. "Don't you think you're overdoing it a little? This guy doesn't have much time left to live! There's no point in torturing him!"

"Why didn't you say you were poisoned?" Red demanded, glaring down at Sevai as he pushed the sergeant's hand away.

"P-Protocol..." Sevai croaked. He sucked in a shaky breath and squeezed his eyes shut. "Prevents prisoners... from leaving..."

"They poisoned you so you wouldn't try to escape?"

Sevai managed a slight nod.

The other Invaders injected him with something terrible so he wouldn't try to run away when he was being transported to their prison. If there was a cure, it would be inside their prison facility...

That was actually a pretty good idea.

Sevai hadn't answered his question though. Why didn't the Invader say anything about being poisoned?

"They will... blame you..." Sevai wheezed. He whimpered and clasped his rancid wound. "You need to... get rid... my body... as soon as... you can..."

Red's expression twisted into a sour one, and his antennae pressed flat. He hated listening to dying monologues almost as much as he hated hearing the Hobo's constant yelling.

Also he's just gotten an idea, but he really didn't like it.

"You guys originally built our PAKs," he started. He was already regretting what he was going to say. "They can keep us alive even after a brutal mauling, and they probably do other important things... so do you think one would be compatible with you or not?"

Sevai's breathing was becoming more irregular and wheezy sounding, but the Invader still managed to answer.

"Too long ago... y-your people... they altered them..."

"Ok," that sounded like a no. "But just to be clear, you're dying right now right? So even if I tried something impossible, it can't really make things worse."

"I won't be able to help you with that!" the sergeant decided as he stood up, leaving his medical bag of the floor. "I'll go see what your solders are doing!" He met the Tallest's gaze. "If things get too messy, give me a holler! I'll bring a mop!"

The Hobo walked out the front entrance before activating the jets on his boots and launching himself into the air.

"No..." Sevai murmured, and his eyes slowly opened. He managed to raised his arms up again in a feeble attempt to protect himself. "You... you do not... know what... will happen..."

Red smirked. He found it kind of ironic that an Invader was the one telling him that.

"Isn't that what experimenting is for?"

"You could... harm yourself..." Sevai insisted.

How was Sevai able to keep arguing when his insides were turning into soup?

That was a gross mental image. Insides as soup. Irkens never had that kind of problem.

Could Invaders live through something that? Probably not. Most non-Irkens seemed to need most of their organs.

Instead of dwelling on it, he glanced at the holes in the Invader's wings. They were black, and the injuries were much bigger than before.

Sevai hadn't moved them at all. Even when he fell, his wings stayed completely lifeless.

Maybe the Invader couldn't move them anymore.

"The initial attachment will hurt like helk since its cables will burrow directly to your spine," Red explained as he reached behind him and grasped his PAK with both hands.

An external scan wouldn't do much at this point. The PAK needed to be attached to the Invader if he wanted to find out exactly what was going wrong.

"On the plus side, you'll die pretty fast if it severs your spinal cord... Assuming you have one of those. It's something my people had to deal with when your kind first started attaching them to us."

It took a bit of pulling before his PAK finally detached. Even though he was the one removing it, his PAK was still putting up some resistance.

He placed it down next to the Invader before carefully turning Sevai onto his stomach. The Invader whimpered as he was forced to lie on his wound.

"P-Please Tallest..." he begged. "Please... don't..."

The Tallest easily tuned out Sevai and nudged his PAK closer.

Almost immediately it grabbed onto the Invader. Its cables sprang out, and they began searching the center of the Invader's back for a place to make the connection.

Sevai reached out and grasped the hem of the Tallest's uniform, clinging to it desperately... he was probably seeking reassurance again...

Red sighed.

Why did non-Irkens have to be so dlarn clingy?

Then one of the cables tore into the Invader, and this caused a lot of screaming and muscle spasms.

If this didn't work Sevai would be dead in a few moments... it really wasn't the worst way to die.

Compared to rotting from the inside out, almost any other form of death would be better.

When Sevai's spasming stopped, he went completely limp. It didn't look like he was breathing anymore either... well... that was kind of disappointing.

"Reactivation," His PAK stated in a monotone robotic voice.

This was followed by an electric shock, and Sevai sucked in a breath.

At least his PAK had been able to restart the Invader's breathing even if it had probably stopped it in the first place.

"Scanning."

Red stood up as he waited to hear Sevai's medical report.

Since he'd been careful in removing his PAK the countdown hadn't started yet, but it would in a little while. He wasn't too sure how the removal process worked exactly since Irkens were never supposed to have them removed unless the Control Brains decided it.

He'd only been separated from his PAK twice, and both times it was for upgrades issued by the Control Brains.

He heard panicking made the symptoms suffered by PAKlessness worse. If he remained calm and within range of his PAK's sensors, he would likely be able to hold off putting it back on until the last few seconds without too many annoying side-effects.

What was taking the scan so long anyway?

"What's the report?" he questioned.

He never tried talking to his PAK before. His people weren't supposed to see their PAKs as separate entities.

A PAK was an Irken's life. It held the information needed for them to function in their society, kept records of their progress, saved all of their memories, and of course their personalities were also stored in there.

He'd never seen an Irken deteriorate from PAK-loss before, but one of his advisers mentioned the process once. Without a connection to that vital device, Irkens would become confused and disoriented. They would suffer memory loss, incoherent speech, and a gradual failure of all of their primary motor functions.

"Scans indicate: Organ degeneration: 38 percent. Muscle degeneration: 23 percent. Skin degeneration: 15 percent. Brain degeneration: 8 percent."

It sounded like the poison circulating through the Invader's body was targeting his organs first... great. The Invader probably needed most of those to live too.

At least the guy's brain was mostly intact...

"Is it fixable?" He asked, crossing his arms as he looked down at his PAK.

"Unidentified foreign contaminant detected."

"Yes I know that," Red responded in annoyance. "Can it be fixed?"

"Recommend deactivation."

"No, you're not going to do that," Red insisted, scowling. "You're going to keep him alive, understand?"

His PAK was quiet for a little while. Almost as though it was thinking though it was probably just reviewing Sevai's condition again.

"Recommend deactivation," His PAK repeated.

Red dragged a hand down the side of his face. There was no way his PAK was actually arguing with him... he probably just didn't respond in a way it understood.

"I'm not accepting that recommendation," he said in a louder clearer tone. "Recommendation denied."

"Reevaluating... boosting immune system's defences... initiating internal repairs to vital organs... Targeting foreign contaminant. Blood levels are low. Hydration recommended. Hibernation mode recommended."

"Initiate hibernation..." hopefully placing Sevai in a coma would allow his PAK to focus on the more needed areas.

"Initiating hibernation."

If his PAK was somehow able to get Sevai stable, he would have the Invader transported to Vort.

Sevai's people were probably still there, so he'd be able to receive the medical attention he needed from them... and if not, he was fairly sure the Vortians would help the Invader with whatever restored technology they had at their disposal.

"Foreign contaminant identified as an undocumented venom."

"Venom..." Red repeated, flicking his antennae forward to show his interest.

Now the symptoms Sevai was displaying made sense... extensive bleeding, severely damaged organs, the inability to stand up and the difficulty he had moving, and the slow degeneration of his skin and muscle tissue.

The injection site of the venom must have been through his chest wound judging by how badly corroded it was.

What kind of creature would cause that kind of damage though?

And how did his countdown clock already reach the five minute mark...?

That was probably why he was feeling light-headed.

"How much longer until he's stable?" Red asked.

"Recovery time inconclusive."

"Can you give me an estimate?"

"Estimated recovery time inconclusive."

"If you weren't my PAK, I'd blow you up, you know that?" Red commented as he sat down on the floor. He leaned forward, placing a hand against the side of his face.

There was nothing else to do but wait then... and... he frowned. Hold on... where was Laes and that other guy?

He tried to think of the last time he saw them... it was in the teleporter wasn't it...? Before the second ship? He clutched the side of his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

Remembering things was difficult right now...

Those two were most likely slacking off somewhere... Laes was a coward so he was probably hiding or something stupid... and the other guy... the weird Irken... he could be anywhere.

"Sir?"

The Tallest's eyes snapped open and he quickly stood up, which turned out to be a bad idea since the whole room started spinning.

"What is it?" he responded as he tried to focus on who was talking.

Would his personality vanish too...? That would be weird...

Why did his people have organic brains if they were so useless...?

He turned towards the entrance and spotted one of his followers walking towards him.

"Sir!?" There was panic in the shorter Irken's tone.

Red rubbed his temples and let out a short sigh. Great. Now he was going to have to explain why he had his PAK removed.

Except he didn't have to, so he wouldn't.

"Your PAK! Where is..." the shorter Irken must have seen where his PAK was because his question petered out.

"You're not tall enough to question me," Red concluded; his antennae lowering in irritation.

"I recognize my lack of height my Tallest..." his follower spoke, sounding unsure. "But I... I just can't leave you without..." He hesitated, fidgeting nervously. "You need your PAK."

"I've got it under control," Red waved him away dismissively. "Go away."

"I can't..."

"You can because I'm telling you to," Red insisted.

"I still..."

"You're really starting to bother me drone."

"I'm very sorry about that my Tallest... but your safety is my first priority..."

His follower wasn't going to leave. The shorter Irken was moving towards him and Sevai.

"Fine... whatever," Red relented as he lowered himself back into a sitting position. If he wasn't feeling so weak and dizzy he would have punted that stupid drone out into the desert. "If you touch my PAK I'll kill you."

"Then I'll be killed sir," the Irken decided without any hesitation.

"Then you're stupid," Red retorted.

His PAK reacted violently to being touched by the drone. Its metal limbs sprang out and one of them stabbed the shorter Irken in the arm.

Was this a normal reaction? Or was his PAK reacting to his own desire for others not to touch it?

He didn't know... ha. He'd had the stupid thing since he was hatched and he hardly knew anything about it... that was weird... this whole thing was weird... what was he even doing..?

The drone let out a pained yelp and stumbled backwards before falling on his rump. It was actually pretty funny to watch.

Red laughed. Then he shook his head and laughed some more.

"Sir... please..." the drone spoke, clutching his wounded arm close to his body. "You need your PAK... you could die..."

"T-try to grab it again," Red told him, snickering. He gestured to his PAK. "Go on."

The Irken visibly deflated, but he pulled himself to his feet and stepped forward, reaching for his Tallest's PAK.

After the fifth time of watching the Irken being smacked around and stabbed by his PAK, Red ordered him to stop. Seeing his follower suffer was pretty funny, but they were already short on numbers.

And somehow his countdown had already reached the two minute mark. He should have been paying more attention to it... everything was starting to become blurry and he was having a hard time thinking straight.

"Sir..." the bloody and battered drone staggered over to Red. "I'm sorry... it's not my place... I shouldn't tell you what to do... but I'm very worried..."

He bowed his head, looking at the floor or something.

"Would you like to have my PAK my Tallest..?"

Red frowned at him. "That puny thing...?" he questioned, raising an antenna.

He pointed at it... except his arm was shaking so not really. He quickly dropped his arm back down and continued to scowl at his follower.

"It won't work."

"It'll be something at least... please..."

Red closed his eyes and covered them with his hand. His head was beginning to hurt, and his follower's annoying nagging wasn't helping.

"I'm not...killing myself..." he insisted. "I'll reattach in a minute...ha... but it... it was funny watching you..."

His thoughts were slowing down... he was having trouble thinking of the words to say.

"It sounds like you're dying sir!"

Red felt the drone grab him by one of his shoulder-guards.

"Please reconnect!"

He had just under a minute... his PAK was very close. If he called to it, he was sure it would return to him... but was Sevai stable enough for something like that?

Ten minutes wasn't a lot of time, and the Invader's condition was very serious. No. He'd have to only reconnect one cable... he wasn't too sure if his PAK could support two bodies though... well... he was about to find out.

Mustering whatever strength he had left, he managed to push himself closer to the Invader. As soon as he was in range his PAK began to disconnect from Sevai.

"No... half it..." Red insisted.

His PAK paused in its movements. It was probably trying to translate what he just said.

"Connect... just one cable..." Red explained as well as he could.

His words were a jumbled mess in his head. He wasn't too sure if he said what he was thinking.

His PAK disconnected one of its cables from Sevai and plugged in to a port on the Tallest's back.

Almost Immediately Red could feel the fog lifting from his confused brain. His strength was slowly returning. He breathed a sigh of relief. His sight was restored too.

"Power supply is draining at twice the normal rate," His Pak informed him. "Disconnecting from non-host entity is recommended."

"How much time until the power-cell is depleted?" Red questioned, shooing away the worried drone who was still hovering around him.

"Calculating three hours."

"And if I enter hibernation mode?"

"Calculating six hours."

"Are you able to continue repairing the non-host body?

"Once the host enters hibernation, repairing the non-host body can continue."

Well... it looked like he was going to have to power-down for a while...

Author's Notes: That poor nameless drone never asked for any of this.

Also... surprise! PAKs can talk... maybe. Red might be the only one who understood it since it's also kind of his brain. In any case, Irkens never do this because they don't really know they can, and they'd find it creepy and weird if they did know about it.

Also as far as the personality transfer works... Red is right there and alive, so it's not happening. He's only using his PAK on Sevai for its life support technology, but since this is the first time an Irken has done this, it's all very experimental.