Chapter 5
Chapter 5
A Truce Thwarted; An Alliance Made
Sar stepped out of the school building before Zim, breathing deeply the smog-filled, noxious air. It was nothing like the filtered, absolutely clean atmosphere of Irk 1, and for some reason, she liked it.
"Well, Zim, what project of conquest are you working on now?" she asked as he caught up to her, panting from running after the long-legged earthling.
"Project?" Zim asked, puzzled. Sar growled impatiently.
"Yes, project, you know, a plan to take over the earth?"
"…No. My last plan failed miserably."
Sar narrowed her eyes yet again and knocked Zim over with one metallic leg, flipping him over like a beetle. With that one leg pinning him and Sar's face right in his, Zim could do nothing but quake in terror. "You will not get in my way, fool, understand??" She snapped.
"Y-y-yes…" Zim stuttered, eyes as wide as dinner plates.
"Good. Now get up and get out of my site. I want you to build me a new cannon for my Vood Runner, a portable one, and if you screw up, I will hurt you. Badly." And with that, Sar stalked off towards her base. Zim breathed a massive sigh of relief and ran to his base like a rabbit from a puma.
~*=*~
"I won't be treated like this!" Zim snapped, smashing two steel plates together, forming a tube-shaped cannon casing. "It isn't fitting to an Invader of my status!"
"Woo, we got status!" Gir squealed, bouncing off the walls.
"You don't have status, Gir, you're just stupid!"
"Aww…"
Zim continued to work, painting a hard resin layer over the pod and placing cannon circuits into it. A faint blue light created an aura around the cannon as Zim connected the last wires, and when the cannon was complete a loud rumbling filled his workroom. "It is done at last," He muttered. "I hope it is to her liking."
"Can we go over to Sar's house now? Huhuhuh?" Gir asked, leaping onto Zim's head.
"Get off! Yes, power up the Vood Runner. Attach the cannon. We fly tonight!"
~*=*~
"There is something about that Dib human that disturbs me," Sar muttered, watching the aforementioned human through a spy camera. Dib was putting a new alien-capturing device together, laughing and muttering terrible things about Zim beneath his breath.
"What is it, Sar?" Tass looked up from his new Game Slave 2, his finger hitting the pause button automatically.
"I think Zim has an attachment to him."
"What sort of attachment?"
"The same sort that made me," she laughed, "but in an amusing way. I didn't know male Irkens could swing that way."
"Well, can you use it to your advantage?"
"I might… yes, I might, and I could ruin them both in one swipe…" Sar's evil cackling mingled with Tass's metallic laughter as the devious plot began to unfold.
~*=*~
"I think there is something between Sar and the Dib human," Zim said growlingly as he piloted his Vood Runner out of his house.
"I think there's some cheese between my toes!" Gir cackled.
"I think there's something there, or why would she threaten him so much? I don't like it."
"Why not, master?"
Gir's sudden rationality and question caught Zim off guard. "Because, I…" He closed his mouth quickly, eyeing Gir. "Because, Gir, I must kill him, and if Sar has something for him, she will not like my killing."
"I don't like killing," Gir said quietly, before reverting to picking cheese off his foot. Zim turned sharply at this statement, one eye narrowed, but he shrugged it off. Gir must have a short-circuit that was causing these statements, and it would have to be fixed later.
"We're here," He said shortly, landing the runner. "Go out and detach the pod, and I'll help you carry it in."
Gir couldn't notice this sudden kindness through his insanity-clouded AI, but he complied with a sort of sense of gratitude. He lifted the pod off of the Runner's top and handed it down to Zim, before hopping down and lifting the back end. Zim stomped on the sod-covered doors of Sar's base a few times, then stepped back to wait. The doors opened slowly and Sar stepped out, followed by Tass and a hovering pad to take the pod.
"Thank you, Zim," She smiled sweetly, putting the pod on the hover pad.
"You're welcome," Came the gruff reply, and Zim hopped back into his runner quickly.
Sar set the pod down in her own workroom and sat in her rotating chair, a smile pasted on her face.
"Tass, dial Dib up for me."
~*=*~
Dib heard his phone ring and checked the Caller ID, and gasped when he saw Sar's name on the screen. With shaking hands he picked the phone up and spoke into the receiver, putting Sar's face on-screen. He noted with interest that she was visibly different from Zim, with her blue eyes and narrow face.
"Hello, Sar," He said calmly.
"Hello, Dib-human," She replied, using Zim's name for him. "I have come to discuss a truce with you."
"A truce?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes, Dib, a truce. I propose we work together to… eradicate Zim."
Dib thought for a moment on that, his chin resting on one hand. Zim was irritating… but, what would killing him do? Sar would just kill Dib then, and his work would be lost. Besides, Dib never really meant to kill Zim… maybe hurt him badly, maybe bruise him a bit, but never kill him. He thought back over his encounters with Zim and, with a jolt of realization, he saw that he had actually enjoyed the close proximity to Zim whenever they fought. When they both became bologna once, he had enjoyed those fleeting moments of peace between him and the alien. He would have lent Zim his telescope when the Planet Jakers attacked, but his pride wouldn't let him.
Once he realized this, a sick jolt of horror flew through him. What was he thinking?? It was disgusting! Zim had to be killed! But… he couldn't make a pact with Sar, because she would kill Zim in horrible ways…
"No, Sar, a truce with you would accomplish nothing," he growled.
"Suit yourself, stupid human," Sar snarled, "I will kill Zim myself, and I will kill him now!"
Immediately the visual flickered off and the phone went dead, and a wave of anguish washed over Dib. She was going to kill Zim! He couldn't help the alien, he couldn't do that, it wasn't right.
Minutes later he was running for Zim's lair, panting hard, a set of alien cuffs in his white-knuckled hands.
~*=*~
"The pieces are falling together," Sar smiled, her eyes following Dib's rout on her computer screen. "Now, the hunter must kill the rabbit that the ferret rooted out…"
With a devious cackle she launched her Vood Runner and hopped inside, followed by Tass. "What are we doing, Sar?" He asked, also watching Dib.
"We are going to take both of them onto our side."
"How?"
"You shall see, my droid, you shall see…"
The Vood Runner cruised just above the cloud layer, right above Dib, its muffled engines making no noise to disturb the evening's silence. Below, Dib ran furiously, his breath short. He looked around a corner, expecting to see Zim's house in ruins, but let out a sigh of relief when he saw its purple, eccentric walls rising from between the apartments on either side of it.
He pounded desperately on the door, glancing around for Sar's deadly dark Runner. The Runner in question was landed, lights off, atop a building adjacent to Zim's base. A telescopic camera caught every movement outside the door.
"What do you want, Dib," Zim hissed as he slammed the door open.
"Sar-" Dib panted, "She's coming- to- kill you!"
"What??" Zim's own eyes scanned the skies for her Runner, but he saw nothing. "Don't lie, Dib!"
"I'm not!" He pulled a miniature screen from his coat and held it up for Zim to see. Sar's face was on it; It was a recording of her conversation with Dib.
"You actually sided with me??" Zim asked, awestruck.
"Yeah… well… I couldn't let her kill you, that's my job! And… she sounds evil, not even you deserve that, Zim." Dib's eyes held something more, but Zim couldn't decipher the human's expression, so he just shrugged.
"All right, Dib, we side together. I accept your truce."
The two walked inside and Zim took Dib to his base, blindfolding the human beforehand to keep some of his secrets. Dib was cooperative and didn't argue against the blindfold or security checks, and Zim didn't object to Dib's wanting to remove the blindfold as soon as they entered the elevator. Zim took them to his basement fortress, on the lowest level, all the while checking security updates.
"Remember when I had that pimple, and you told me there were security breaches?" Zim asked as they stepped off the elevator.
"Yes," Dib replied, "But I only told you one of them."
"I'd like you to tell me the rest."
"What, no Postulio?" Dib laughed. Zim looked at him askance, surprised at the joke, but laughed as well. The danger of Sar was evaporating the animosity between human and alien.
"No, no Postulio, but if you don't tell me, you'll be cleaning up far more than putrescent puss. Irken entrails are quite odiferous."
"All right. As well as the tunneling, if a decoy were launched at your house's front, and all the cameras focused on it, a real ship or invader could easily climb in your back window. Also, there were issues with your cameras' sight radius…"
Zim interrupted him with a hand motion, and turned his full gaze on the human. "Dib, I've got o tell you something and I hope you won't hate me, but I've read about certain humans that have this certain trait and Dib, I cannot love you!"
Dib's eyes flew open and his mouth dropped, and he stuttered for a few moments, unable to articulate words. Zim saw this and spoke quickly, consolingly, saying "I know, I know, I'm sorry, but it's wrong anyway; I just don't swing that way."
"I'm not gay!" Dib managed to gasp out incredulously. "I just wanted a friend!"
"Really?"
"Yes!" Dib was still staring at Zim, and Zim coughed uncomfortably.
"I'm sorry, but the way you just switched sides, I figured…"
"The reason I like being around you is because you give me the only real attention I ever get! My sister ignores me, my father ignores me, everyone ignores me except you! I found some sadistic pleasure in your attacks, because it made me feel needed. I wanted to be your friend, but my pride wouldn't let me."
Zim felt a pang of guilt and empathy for the human, and nodded. "I know how you feel, I have no friends either."
"That's why I torment you so much; I just want to be needed…"
"All right, Dib, let's be friends. Together we can destroy earth!"
Dib laughed in relief. "We'll have to talk about that, buddy."
"Don't call me that."
"Sorry… can I call you Zimmy?"
"No! Or else I'll call you Dibby!"
"Eech! All right, just Zim."
"Just Dib."
"Let's work out a plan to get rid of Sar!"
"Yes! Doom! Doooom!"
Peals of half-evil, half-friendly laughter filled Zim's basement fortress, and Sar could have no way of knowing how her plan had been thwarted.
End-Of-Chapter Notes: I decided against a Dib/Zim slash… it didn't seem right… so, hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway! More to come; my plot's totally planned now. I've got one word for you: Doom!
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