Disclaimers: I do not own Invader Zim
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading and please enjoy Chapter 5!
(Back with Dib and Zim…)
He had expected all hell to break out at any second, but surprisingly the two Irkens seemed to be in no hurry to make the first move.
"So?" Tak asked Zim knowingly. "Are you impressed?"
"Impressed?" Zim's outburst startled Dib and what was even more startling was that the male Irken actually pushed passed him to stand in between him and the female. "Are you crazy? This extreme stunt of yours has cause way too much attention!"
"I'm sorry I thought you enjoyed a challenge." Tak teased.
Dib however, is currently floored. The two Irkens were basically acting like he wasn't even there.
Zim's PAK legs were drawn in seconds, his mouth dripping saliva as he gave a firm warning hiss. "I am giving you one chance to make the right decision." He growled. "Leave this planet and I will do you the honor of not reporting your where about to our superiors!" Sure, he didn't like the idea of letting her get away, after all Tak was a wanted fugitive, one who knew a very dark secret of his.
But recent events had forced him to see the bigger picture, if Tak would just leave quietly than Zim would once again have a handle on this situation. So when he finally decided to report the arrival of the alliance to Earth it would make it sound like he had everything under control. Instead of, "Well I'd love to stop the Alliance, but I'm too busy trying to eliminate the competition!"
No that would never do!
In short, Tak had to go, and her going by her own choice was far less messy and gave them a better chance of not exposing themselves any further to the enemy.
"What is this?" Tak scoffed. "A peaceful solution coming from the conqueror of 9 galaxies?" She spat. "Time on this worthless mud ball has made you soft."
Meanwhile Dib was having a hard time processing all of this. Zim wasn't here to kill him, instead he seemed to be defending him. Not only that he was demanding Tak to leave Earth, so did that mean he was defending Earth? Where they on the same side?
It would seem that way, but Dib knew that when it came to Zim he couldn't assume anything. The guy seemed to let the moment drive his every impulse and right now the driving impulse looked ready to kill. And getting in the way of this battle just might cause him to meet an untimely demise.
And yet a part of him was annoyed, here he was, their enemy. And the two Idiots were so busy fighting each other for this mission that they weren't even giving him the respect he deserved! So he decided that he would make his presence known whether they wanted him to be here or not.
"Uh hi!" He said feeling a little stupid. "Dib here, just one question." He took a deep breath and screamed. "What the hell is going on here?"
"It's a standoff." Zim tried to explain.
"No I get that!" Dib snapped. "What I don't get is why you!" He pointed at Tak dramatically. "Decided that the best way to get our attention was to steal people's organs and replace it with random junk!"
"See even the Earth Monkey thinks you went too far!" Zim lectured.
Tak expected the lecture, she really did. As much as Irkens loved to walk all over each other they also wanted their race to look superior above all else. And being told off by an inferior life form was making them both look bad, but Tak stood firm. "I wanted to test the enemy's response." She answered. "How would they handle this knowing they can't go to their government for help without exposing their friends?"
Dib was floored Tak knew about the Galactic Alliance? Did that mean Zim did too?
"This was still reckless." Zim continued to lecture. "I'm cutting the cord now Tak, you are done."
"Oh you mean like I was 138 years ago?" Tak taunted.
"138 years ago!" Dib screamed despite himself. "Just how old are you?"
Zim gave Dib a "You're kidding me right now look."
Dib blushed as he realized. "Right, not the best time to ask." He pulled out his laser sword and got into a fighting stance. He knew thanks to their previous encounters that this weapon would not give him much of an edge. Which was why he insisted on Dark Booty giving them more than some clunky hall passes, but at the moment this was better than nothing.
"Stay out of this worm." Zim warned his eyes never leaving Tak.
"As if!" Dib challenged. "If anyone's going to defend Earth it's going to be a human, not you!"
"Shouldn't you be more worried about your boyfriend?" Tak sneered.
Zim's eyes narrowed.
"Gee I wonder where he's gone." Tak continued to tease.
Dib however, miss reads it. "You! What have you done to him?" He demanded as he swung his sword at the female. And even though Dib misses her by a huge margin Zim can't help but feel moved. Knowing that the boy would fight for him when he had no chance of winning at all.
'That's because he doesn't know who, or what you really are.' His programming reminded him.
'Let's keep it that way.' Zim advised himself.
"You fool!" Tak hissed as she used one of her PAK legs to knock Dib off his feet. "You're so blinded by his charade you can't see the truth right in front of you!"
"What truth?" Dib asked, obviously confused, but before she could answer him Zim charged.
With a battle cry that could only come from a warrior that had experienced death. Zim used his Pak legs to jump several feet, knocking into Tak as he went.
Dib watched as the two Irkens tumbled several floors below, their battle movements mirroring that of two spiders lock in a fight to the death.
Zim dodged a Pak leg and sliced through the air with one of his own. She dodges it with ease and jumps into midair, before catching his chin with a round house kick. She followed after with a stab of her own, and felt pride as she actually managed to draw blood.
Zim is also impressed with her efforts, but he recovers quickly enough, spinning out of the way of a third blow before lashing out with one of his own.
The blow makes contact, but the female blocks it with her PAK legs, resulting in her sliding only a few feet back across the floor.
"You've improved." Zim noted. "I'm impressed." He admitted.
"I've been training on Hobo 13." Tak bragged.
"So Sergeant Hobo 678 is training traitors." Zim mused knowingly. "I wonder how the Tallest will feel about this news."
"He's not training a traitor!" Tak hissed. "You're the traitor!"
Dib who was making his way down to them froze. Did he just hear her right, Zim was a traitor? But how?
"You're the one who should be fighting for his survival, but you framed me and took all the glory for yourself!" Tak went on.
"So that it?" Zim scoffed. "This is about revenge?"
"This isn't about revenge, this is about getting what is rightfully mine!" Tak screamed as she attacked delivering blow after blow.
Zim dodged these gracefully, allowing Tak's anger to do most of the work for him.
"I should be the Tallest's favorite! This should be my mission! I'm the real invader, you're nothing! Nothing but a stupid defective!"
'Defective?' Dib thought. 'What's a defective?'
Zim, who had had enough of her mouth took the moment to strike, the sharp end of his PAK leg sliced across her face, nicking an eye and blinding her.
Tak howled in pain and that's when Dib charged down the remaining stairs and swung his sword at the enemy. Tak had just enough time to block it with her Pak leg, however she left her back exposed.
And that's when he appeared out of nowhere, jumping from several floors up Miz swooped down and looped the hall pass around her neck. Tak threw him off as it locked into place. Her eyes widen as she sees him, she's obviously confused.
"How?" She asked, but before she could Zim struck her from behind and Tak falls forward on her knees stunned. She was surrounded by the enemy on all sides. "You would side with them?" Tak hissed in discuss. "Where is your honor?"
"A reckless child like you does not deserve an honorable fight!" Zim snapped. "What if your plan had gone wrong? Like it is now? Do you have a backup plan for being captured? Or do you think you're so good that you're untouchable?"
"You won't let them take me alive." Tak challenged. "It will expose you too!"
"Depending on me to save your skin?" Zim was outraged. "And you dare to lecture me about honor. A true invader would have a contingency plan for every possible outcome! You may have learned how to fight, but you still have a lot to learn about being an invader!"
Tak sees red, but only because she knows Zim is right, and the fact disgusts her so. She got too impatient waiting for him to make the first move. Not only that, but she gave into her weakness and let her anger fuel her actions. In short, he was right, Tak had a lot to learn about being an invader.
But that didn't mean she was giving up that easily.
"Mimi!" She screamed.
The cat like Sir Unit charged catching the enemy's attention, and Tak used that moment to turn on her cloaking device.
"Oh no you don't!" Dib placed on his X-scopes and smiled as he realized he could see her. He takes advantage of this new found knowledge and goes to deliver a blow of his own.
Tak sees it coming and the fact that this worthless little worm had technology that can out due hers hits a nerve. "You insolent," She struck, Pak legs ready to deliver a deadly blow.
She contact with someone's guts, but it is not human.
Dib is suddenly thrown back by Zim who takes the blow deep in his belly. It's not deep enough to kill or reach through him and his Pak, but it's enough to wind him, and Tak takes advantage of the moment to flee.
Zim falls to his knees, she should take this moment to deliver the deadly blow, to win the battle, but instead she retracts her Pak leg.
"Next time!" She vows to Zim before she moves to rip off the hall Pass which is like a collar around her neck.
Her Pak legs cut right through it, and before it can clatter to the ground she and Mimi are gone.
Dib is completely floored, both figuratively and literally as he sat on the floor trying to piece together what just happened. That blow would have killed him…which meant… "You saved me?"
Zim forced himself onto shaking feet. He had to get out of here, no doubt the Swollen Eyeball would be sending reinforcements to their aid. "I told you." He growled. "The only one who gets to destroy you is me!"
Dib shivered as the Irken Male pressed a button on his wrist and in a flash of blinding white light he's gone.
Miz who seems to have remembered how to move rushes towards him. "Are you hurt?" He asked, his voice sounding fearful.
"No…" Dib managed to answer and is surprised as his boyfriend embraces him.
"Don't you ever do something that reckless ever again!" he yelled, hanging on to him tight.
Dib is stunned but manages to return the gesture. Miz was never know to be so open with his feelings, which meant, Dib must have really scared him. "I'm sorry." He said. "I'll never do it again…I promise."
"Idiot!" Miz gave him a full-hearted punch in the arm.
Dib just held him tighter. "I love you." He admitted much to his own surprise.
Miz pulls away, he looks stunned by the sudden confession, but before he can respond the moment is interrupted.
"Guys there you are!" Gaz exclaimed as she raced over to them.
"Gaz you're okay!" Dib let go of Miz and ran up to her.
"Yeah I'm fine." Gaz said. "Dark Booty found the cage with the Organs in it."
"Cage?" Dib asked.
"The Hall pass." Gaz said. "Didn't Dark Booty tell you what it does?"
"Uh no." Dib said. "I just pushed it towards the enemy." He admitted sheepishly.
"Well your dumb luck paid off." Gaz informed him. "It transformed into a cage and must have caught whoever had the organs."
"It didn't hold them long." Miz cut in as he got to his feet.
"Yeah but at least we saved the day." Dib said hopefully.
Miz smiled. "At least."
"Did something happen?" Gaz asked feeling as if she walked in on something.
"Only Dib almost getting himself killed." Miz snapped.
Dib smiled, Miz seemed to be back to his normal self and he was glad for that.
"Don't smile!" Miz scowled knocking him firmly on the top of his head. "Had it not been for him you'd be dead right now!"
"Him?" Gaz asked.
"Yeah Zim." Dib said. "Zim saved me…he jumped in front of me and…"
Gaz looked down and noticed the pool of pink blood. "But why would he do that?"
"I…I don't know." Miz answered. "He claimed it was because he wants to kill Dib himself, but…"
Dib bit his lip, he too felt like there was more to it than that. "Look let's just get out of here." He said. "And not a word to mom!" he warned them both. "You know how she's been since she's gotten home."
The answer was 100% overprotective of her little babies!
Gaz nodded her agreement and soon the three teens climbed up the stairs.
Meanwhile, Zim growled in pain from his hiding spot in the vents. His wound was healing, but it would take some time. He couldn't believe he had been so reckless. Here he was lecturing Tak about being careless and then he goes and takes a blade for the enemy.
If Tak had known he'd defend the child, and stabbed a little deeper…
'You'd be dead.' His programing stated the obvious. 'Perhaps it's time we come clean and get fixed.'
Fixed, yes Zim had no doubt that Red and Purple would try to fix him. Zim could even come clean about Tak and blame her for infecting him with her defective ways. But returning to home world now would mean his mission would be a failure, and Zim's perfect record would be soiled.
No he would complete the mission no matter what! Next time he and Tak would settle things without Dib that way she couldn't use him to her advantage.
And with that thought fresh on his mind the Irken retreated further into the vents.
(Meanwhile with Mrs. Bitters…)
Reinforcements had come to Dib's aid, however, Mrs. Bitters and Lard Nar had decided to hang back and watch the scene play out before them.
And what they saw was very puzzling in deed.
"She is a loose cannon had Zim not been here-" Lard Nar began.
"I know." Mrs. Bitters cut in. "However, we both know that this is a fight of honor between two invaders, we cannot interfere." She warned. "He won't allow it, next time he'll make sure it's just the two of them."
"Still." Lard Nar was lost for words as he began to clean away the blood. "To take a blow for him…Dib…Dib must be really special."
"It's hard to understand innless you've felt it before yourself." Mrs. Bitters told him.
"So even Irkens are capable of love?" Lard Nar teased knowingly.
Mrs. Bitters nodded. "They like to act cold, but it's all an act, in fact Dib just might be the reason we win him over."
"Or he could be the reason that he stands firm in his leaders' beliefs." Lard Nar warned her.
"I know you are bitter about his betrayal to you." Mrs. Bitters said.
Lard Nar grimaced, it was true he was still bitter, but he didn't want to be. "I want to believe he will do the right thing, but experience tells me otherwise."
"Daughter will fix him." Mrs. Bitters assures him.
"And will that be enough?" Lard Nar asked.
"It has to be." Mrs. Bitters said sounding less sure.
"I hope you're right." Lard Nar said. "Truly." He added as he finished washing away the evidence of the fight.
Once done the two aliens disappeared back into the shadows.
-To Be Continued