Arm: ::sigh:: Since ff.net was down for so long, we decided to work on this….
Leg: Yeah, we were going to take a week to get ready and do the research Arm wanted to do for this chapter…. Chapter 14, the next one is the last one…. ::sigh:: I really don't want this to end….
Arm: Since I got the research done early, and now that I have to rewrite part of the chapter, you're getting it early. There is a contest that all of you can take part in if you read this chapter, more details as to what it is at the end of the fic….
Betraying the Rivalry: Chapter 14: Surrender?
Zim got up the next morning, put on his disguise, and waited for when he would usually leave for skool. Gir walked around the lab, wondering where his new friend, a black ant, had gone. Zim watched Gir with a small smile on his face. Gir was really okay, when he didn't get in Zim's way.
Zim sighed as he went back to gathering the things he would need for getting the pictures back. He was almost set for this, he just hoped that Dib was ready for it. He hoped that whatever happened, he and Dib would make it out of Debbie's lab alive.
Zim filled his "bookbag" with most of his tools he figured he was going to need. He said good bye to Gir, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped that this wouldn't be the last time he ever saw Gir.
He walked out of his house and headed in the general direction of the skool. The plan was to meet up with Dib, and act like Dib wasn't there, in case Debbie was watching them. Dib would act all hurt and walk to skool without talking to him at all, while Zim would try not to say he was sorry.
Zim hoped that he could do it. Irkens weren't really good actors, and he also hoped Dib wouldn't forget what he had to do. They really had to act, especially because Zim knew that Debbie was following him. He could tell because she wasn't being too quiet as she jumped from bush to bush.
Dib saw Zim, and gulped when he saw Debbie hiding in the bushes behind him. "Hey, Zim!" Dib shouted as he ran up to his boyfriend. (Arm: Damn, I can't write friend no more!)
Zim just glared at him like he was supposed to.
"What? What did I do?" Dib asked, looking confused. Debbie was watching every minute of this, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Zim looked like as he was dying to explain everything to Dib, and Dib looked hurt.
"Nothing, now leave me alone," Zim managed to say in a hateful sounding voice.
"Why should I?" Dib asked just like he was supposed to.
"Oh, this is rich!" Debbie muttered loudly to herself as she watched.
"I said leave me alone, Dib," Zim repeated as he tried not to look behind him and glare at Debbie.
Dib looked at him, his facial expression showing that he was mad, but his eyes gave away that he was really sad and confused. "Fine, Zim! See if I ever talk to you again," Dib told him, his voice getting slightly high pitched.
Debbie was enjoying herself fully when Dib turned from Zim and walked away from him. Zim had hurt Dib more than she would ever be able to. She got up from her spot in the bushes and walked over to Zim. "I have to hand it to you, Zim, I didn't think you'd be able to do that to Dib," she told him.
Zim's shoulder's tensed before he turned to face her. "Leave me alone, human," he said in his most hateful voice. "I don't want to hear it," Zim said as he turned back around and walked away from her.
Debbie smiled to herself and headed for work. She knew she wouldn't have to worry about the disk. Neither Zim nor Dib wanted her to show those pictures to the world. Besides, she knew that Zim wouldn't try to do anything today, he had to attend skool.
Zim sighed when he knew that Debbie was gone. Part one of the plan went very well. He walked up to the skool, and headed over towards Dib.
"Dib she believe our act?" Dib asked in a whisper, still unsure in Debbie was still following Zim or not.
"Yes. She walked off after she spoke to me. Are you ready to ditch this place?" Zim asked.
"Duh! I was born ready," Dib told him. "I brought a few of my inventions. I figured they might help us when we break into Debbie's lab," Dib stated, motioning to his bookbag.
"I brought a few of mine as well. Now, c'mon!" Zim said as he grabbed Dib's arm and dragged him to the back of the skool. He ducked behind a bush with Dib following him when he saw Debbie. They waited for Debbie to be out of sight before they ran off the skool grounds and headed for Debbie's lab.
"I sure hope that Debbie isn't headed for her lab," Dib mumbled to Zim. Zim just nodded his head as they walked towards MacMeaties.
They made it to MacMeaties within a few minutes. Dib kept looking behind him. He felt as if someone was following them, but every time he looked behind him, he didn't see anyone. He turned back around and looked at Zim. Zim looked like he wasn't worried at all.
Zim was worried, however. He wondered if he should have let Dib help him in this. He appreciated Dib's willingness to help, but he didn't want him to get hurt. Zim felt someone grab his hand and he looked over at Dib.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Zim asked again as he located a way to enter Debbie's lab. He knelt down and began to take off the covering to the air vent.
Dib knelt down next to him and made Zim look at him before kissing him. "Of course, Zim, I'm positive that I want to help you. I want to make sure that you're by my side for the rest of my life. I don't want to see you on the weeknight news one day, getting chopped up on an autopsy table," Dib told him.
"You used to want that," Zim said with a small smile.
"Smartass," Dib muttered as he lightly punched Zim on the shoulder. Zim just gave him a big grin and continued working. Zim finished in a few seconds and he let Dib get in the air vent first. He made a silent plea of hope tat everything would go as planned as he crawled in after Dib.
Dib opened up the first air vent that lead to an empty hallway. He jumped down on the ground, and waited for Zim to appear next to him. He studied the hallway. It looked like a straight run from where they were to the end of it, but Dib suspected that it wasn't that easy.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Zim asked before taking a step forward. Dib grabbed him back when he saw a bunch of swinging blades come down from the ceiling of the hallway.
"You all right, Zim?" Dib asked once Zim looked like he could talk.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but that just scared the hell out of me," Zim replied.
"Do you have anything I could throw through the hallway that you don't really need?" Dib asked. Zim handed him something he didn't recognize. "I take that as a yes," Dib stated. He threw the object all the way across the hallway, and more blades swung down from the ceiling. "Now Zim, I want you to do what I do," Dib said suddenly as he jumped on the base of one swinging blade. He continued jumping from blade to blade, with Zim following him hesitantly. Dib jumped onto the ground when there was no more blades, just barely missing the spikes that came up from the ground. Zim watched him and copied the move, landing into Dib's arms.
"Why, hello Zim," Dib said as he held tight onto Zim.
"You can put me down now," Zim told him. "And how did you know about all that?" Zim asked once he was back on the ground and looked behind him at the blades. They walked into another hall, one with brightly colored tiles.
"I saw this in a movie once," Dib answered. He saw that Zim was about to walk across the colored tiles. "I wouldn't do that just yet, Zim," he stated.
"Why? It's not like I'm going to get hurt or anyth—Gah!" Zim shouted as he stepped onto a blue tile, causing fire to come up from the hole in all the blue tiles, and backed up into Dib before he could get burned.
"I told you not to do that," Dib whispered. "We can step on all the blue tiles now, I think, just don't walk on the other ones yet," Dib said as he took a hesitant step on the same tile Zim had walked on. The blue tiles were big enough for both of them to step on, so Zim walked on it next to him. They jumped from blue tile to blue tile until the reached a dark corridor.
"Okay, Dib, so what's next?" Zim asked.
"Debbie definitely copied off the movie, so the easiest part is next," Dib said as he looked around in his bookbag for something. "Do you have anything like a laser beam sword or something? I left mine at home," Dib told him when he looked up.
Zim fished around for one. "Yeah, I do," Zim said as he took it out and turned it on. "What do you need it for?" Zim asked as Dib took it out of his hands.
"Just follow me Zim, and when I say run, you run," Dib ordered. They walked farther into the dark corridor, and Dib eyed the hourglass that was hanging over the door. He looked up and saw that the roof was starting to close down on them. "Run!" Dib shouted as he sliced at the hourglass when they were close enough, and the roof stopped closing down on them the second the hourglass was broken. Dib turned off the laser and put it in his pocket.
The two off them walked down the hall once they got out of that room. "So, Dib, are you sure there isn't anything else?" Zim asked as he walked a bit ahead.
"Positive. There are no more rooms that I can remember from the movie that she could have copied, and Debbie doesn't know we're her—" The floor fell from under Dib, and went back to normal.
Zim turned around, trying to find where Dib could have possibly gone. "Dib? Dib! Where are you?" Zim asked. Zim was thrown off his feet as a screen came up from underneath him. The screen had nothing but snow on it, but then Debbie's face suddenly appeared on it. Zim narrowed his eyes at her.
"So, we meet again, Zim. You've been a bad, bad alien," Debbie said as she waved a finger at the screen.
"What did you do to Dib?" Zim asked loathingly as he scrambled to his feet.
"Absolutely nothing. My future step-son is fine, it's what you did to him that I want to know," Debbie stated.
"I didn't touch him in anyway," Zim answered her.
"I saw the two of you kiss. What kind of sick mind-control do you have him under?" Debbie asked angrily.
"He doesn't have me under mind-control, Debbie. I enjoyed that kiss as much as the other ones," Dib said from somewhere off the screen. He sounded as if he had had the wind knocked out of him.
"You what?!" Debbie asked in shock as she turned to Dib.
"Dib! Dib, are you all right?" Zim nearly shouted at the screen. He watched helplessly as Debbie walked off the screen, and the sound of a foot meeting someone's stomach was heard.
"That's for admitting you kissed that disgusting being. This," there was a pause and a CRACK! of a broken nose, "is for speaking up and helping him get in my lab in the first place," Debbie said. She walked back onto the screen.
"Damn you, Debbie!" Dib managed to shout at her.
Zim was really worried now, but he didn't want his worry to be evident to Debbie. He was too pissed at her for hurting his Dib. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you do to my Dib?" he asked.
"Your Dib? What makes him your Dib? He's my step-son," Debbie told him.
"So? He's my boyfriend," Zim told her. He watched the look of revulsion on her face, and the shock, but he saw her hate for him the most in her eyes.
Debbie pushed a button that Zim could not see on the screen. She watched the robotic arms coming up from behind Zim. "He'll be fine, but I don't know about you," Debbie stated.
"Zim, get (pant) out of there! She's just (cough) distracting you! Don't worry about me (cough, cough)," Dib ordered as he made it onto the screen. Debbie instantly kicked him in the gut.
"Dib! What did you do that for?!" Zim asked Debbie the second she faced him again.
"Come on, space scum, try getting your precious Dib back, if you really care about him like you say you do," Dib taunted.
"What are you going to do to him while I'm trying to get to you?" Zim asked as the robotic arms inched closer.
Debbie feigned thinking, and then answered, "Oh, nothing too painful."
Dib goes into a chain of coughs as he tried to tell Zim to get out of there. He tenses for another kick when Debbie turned to him. Zim couldn't stand it anymore.
"Wait! Don't hurt him! I…I surrender," Zim said in desperation. He looked down at the ground and hoped that he did the right thing.
Arm: Muhahahahahahahaha! Our cliffhangers have returned!
Leg: Arm, you have too much fun with keeping people on the edge, you know… People are going to kill you for that.
Arm: So? Now onto the contest. I have two questions. What movie did I take the booby-traps for Debbie's lab? And what was the set of traps called in the movie?
Leg: The first person to get both of those questions right gets a fic from us. ^_^ They can pick the genre, the couple, and even the plot if they really want to.
Arm: The second person to get them right also gets a fic from us, they can choose the couple, but we have everything else to ourselves.
Leg: If you don't leave your email for us to contact you with, and you get the questions right, and you happen to be one of the first two to get them right… Well, it sucks to be you. K? Let the contest begin! Oh, and don't forget to review?