1.1.1 Chapter Fourteen – I Wish...
1.1.1.1 I Knew What I Wanted
"Mom...I'm so glad I can finally...I don't even know you."
"It's okay, I'm fine. How many years has it been? You've sure grown since I last saw you."
"Yes. I'm fifteen."
"What happened to you?"
"I've been in a war, I have a family now."
"At age fifteen?"
"Callista and I took some kids into my care whose families were killed. It's legal – we're a couple."
"I'm so proud of you. You're very successful. How long have I been in captive?"
"Thirteen years. I'm glad you're alive. Have you met Callista?"
"Yes. It was so long ago, though. She's probably a whole new person now."
"I don't know. I've known her ever since I was eleven; she was ten at the time. Now we're both fifteen. That's because we've utilized certain methods of time travel."
"I'd love to meet her again."
"Hello? Dib?" Callista's voice resounded throughout the musty corridors through which his family had been stored away; captive and without knowledge of what lay ahead, death, or maybe even torture. Like the torture of not knowing if their loved ones were okay.
"Callista!" Dib rushed to a nearby cell in which contained Callista. And Dillan. And Caitlyn. "Merchenyl, why are you doing this? You're ruining the very last fragments of my life!"
"I gave you a choice. Your sister is dying, and unless you give up Callista, I'm going to kill the rest of them as well."
"NO! You won't do that! It's time that you're stopped! I used to think that Zim was the ultimate enemy of mine. We were sworn rivals. I was wrong. It is you. You're the one who needs to be stopped! I still cannot comprehend what could cause you to behave in such ways. This time, I mean it. I'm going to put and end to your terrorizing empire," he withdrew a knife and pointed it at Merchenyl with a look of pure defiance.
"Ha. You couldn't go through with it the last time, why should I expect you to do so now?"
"If only I had done it that the last time, three-hundred years into the past, if only I could have succeeded, my family would be in much more a peaceful state. So many frightening occurrences could've been averted! I didn't succeed before. But you can make a sure bet of it that I'm going to now."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't gamble. It is you who will die!" At this Merchenyl extracted a laser, approximately three feet in length, certain to kill if it were to penetrate one's flesh. A deadly weapon. It could slice a knife such as the one Dib possessed in two with incredible ease. A fight between the two would inevitably lead to disaster. In an overpowering consternation, Callista gazed at them, transfixed, with almost unseeing eyes.
"For the good of the universe, please, oh, PLEASE win!" She cried in anguish.
"I'll try." Merchenyl whipped the laser from side to side like the sail of an old-fashioned ship in a treacherous storm on a rugged night. The laser came down from a higher perch in the air with a crash as fearsome as the glare on Merchenyl's vicious face. Quickly darting from one end to the next, Dib was barely able to avoid contact with it. As he leapt away from it, he fell backward and slid to the far wall. Before he had the time to escape, Merchenyl brought the laser down on his head, leaving a gash from which blood gushed in a slow, dreary manner as if it were the very essence of defeat.
Still she stood, laughing maniacally as this sight amused her. As a final show of triumph, she lifted him and brought him to the cell near Callista to show that indeed, she had killed him. Callista, far too traumatized to speak, took his hand and slipped the Cosmic Energy Crystal into it. A glowing surrounded them and Dib's eyes opened slightly. He picked up the knife and flung it to Merchenyl's throat. She fell as did Dib, and the Crystal shattered into a thousand pieces.
1.1.1.1 I Knew What I Wanted
"Mom...I'm so glad I can finally...I don't even know you."
"It's okay, I'm fine. How many years has it been? You've sure grown since I last saw you."
"Yes. I'm fifteen."
"What happened to you?"
"I've been in a war, I have a family now."
"At age fifteen?"
"Callista and I took some kids into my care whose families were killed. It's legal – we're a couple."
"I'm so proud of you. You're very successful. How long have I been in captive?"
"Thirteen years. I'm glad you're alive. Have you met Callista?"
"Yes. It was so long ago, though. She's probably a whole new person now."
"I don't know. I've known her ever since I was eleven; she was ten at the time. Now we're both fifteen. That's because we've utilized certain methods of time travel."
"I'd love to meet her again."
"Hello? Dib?" Callista's voice resounded throughout the musty corridors through which his family had been stored away; captive and without knowledge of what lay ahead, death, or maybe even torture. Like the torture of not knowing if their loved ones were okay.
"Callista!" Dib rushed to a nearby cell in which contained Callista. And Dillan. And Caitlyn. "Merchenyl, why are you doing this? You're ruining the very last fragments of my life!"
"I gave you a choice. Your sister is dying, and unless you give up Callista, I'm going to kill the rest of them as well."
"NO! You won't do that! It's time that you're stopped! I used to think that Zim was the ultimate enemy of mine. We were sworn rivals. I was wrong. It is you. You're the one who needs to be stopped! I still cannot comprehend what could cause you to behave in such ways. This time, I mean it. I'm going to put and end to your terrorizing empire," he withdrew a knife and pointed it at Merchenyl with a look of pure defiance.
"Ha. You couldn't go through with it the last time, why should I expect you to do so now?"
"If only I had done it that the last time, three-hundred years into the past, if only I could have succeeded, my family would be in much more a peaceful state. So many frightening occurrences could've been averted! I didn't succeed before. But you can make a sure bet of it that I'm going to now."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't gamble. It is you who will die!" At this Merchenyl extracted a laser, approximately three feet in length, certain to kill if it were to penetrate one's flesh. A deadly weapon. It could slice a knife such as the one Dib possessed in two with incredible ease. A fight between the two would inevitably lead to disaster. In an overpowering consternation, Callista gazed at them, transfixed, with almost unseeing eyes.
"For the good of the universe, please, oh, PLEASE win!" She cried in anguish.
"I'll try." Merchenyl whipped the laser from side to side like the sail of an old-fashioned ship in a treacherous storm on a rugged night. The laser came down from a higher perch in the air with a crash as fearsome as the glare on Merchenyl's vicious face. Quickly darting from one end to the next, Dib was barely able to avoid contact with it. As he leapt away from it, he fell backward and slid to the far wall. Before he had the time to escape, Merchenyl brought the laser down on his head, leaving a gash from which blood gushed in a slow, dreary manner as if it were the very essence of defeat.
Still she stood, laughing maniacally as this sight amused her. As a final show of triumph, she lifted him and brought him to the cell near Callista to show that indeed, she had killed him. Callista, far too traumatized to speak, took his hand and slipped the Cosmic Energy Crystal into it. A glowing surrounded them and Dib's eyes opened slightly. He picked up the knife and flung it to Merchenyl's throat. She fell as did Dib, and the Crystal shattered into a thousand pieces.