Rain-Soaked Slave
C3: Stranger
[Disclaimer: Jhonen V. owns "Invader Zim." I own whatever I write/create. Don't steal and don't sue.]
Dib skulked over his steering wheel. He was having a very bad day. Zim had been fooling about in the classes in the university, purposely disrupting Dib's studies to bother him. There were quite a few explosions in the halls outside the Paranormal Photography rooms and Zim and his 'dog' had caused them all.
Secondly, his forehead still was greasy from the morning. Still living at home, he was still the equivalent of annoying big brother to Gaz, who was in her senior year at the high school. She hadn't wanted to hear his complaints about Zim, and had silenced him by throwing her buttered toast at him. It had smacked him right in the forehead and silenced him well.
Finally, it was the fact that Gaz had gotten a ride from the one person Dib might hate more than Zim. Gaz had casually ignored the bus when it drove by towards the bus stop. When Dib had asked about it, she had replied as thus:
"Ian's giving me a ride."
Dib hated Ian so very much. His 'paranormal sense' always tingled when she was around, and when Ian was around, he always managed to get hit in the head.
He heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose lightly, pushing his glasses a bit higher on his face. He was waiting in his car…but he would call it a jalopy. It was barely good for getting around the town, but it was all he could afford. He had tried to ask his father for money, but Professor Membrane was unable to talk to him. The tuition was the last bit of money he had gotten.
Forgetting about his financial woes, Dib glanced to his right. The high school was due out any moment, and he was waiting for Gaz. The bell toned and students began to file out. Dib started to open the car door when a sleek black car sped up the road coming towards him. Tires shrieking, it did a one-eighty turn and parked perfectly behind Dib.
Gaz appeared from the doorway of the school by kicking someone out of her way and smiled when she saw the black car. She hopped off the stairs and onto the person she had just kicked before darting off to the black car. The door slammed, and the car peeled out. Dib was growling by now.
The black car was Ian's.
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"Can you teach me how to park like that?"
"Park like what?"
"Whenever you parallel park, you do that weird spin."
"Oh, that."
Gaz just shook her head and smirked. The woman sitting across from her was fascinating.
"How long has it been since we met?" Ian asked.
"Six years."
"How many times have we come to this Chinese restaurant?"
"Once a week for six years."
"Fascinating." They were silent with each other and just ate their food for a good long while. Gaz noticed her friend was strangely preoccupied and seemed distant. Outside, thunder crashed across the sky and rain began to pour down on the city. Ian lay down her chopsticks and laced her fingers, resting her chin on them to gaze out to the window. She let out a sigh after another few minutes.
"You do know that Zim is an alien, right?" she glanced sideways to Gaz.
"Yeah." Gaz replied, "I'm one of the few people in this stupid place who does. He's got green skin for god's sake. Why can't people see that?"
"People seem to not see a lot of things." The cryptic quote was followed by silence from Ian. Gaz didn't like it. Ian usually seemed lighthearted, even when there was rain coming down in buckets like it was. The worry she felt was disconcerting. She wanted to fix it.
"What's wrong?" she asked, setting down her glass of clear soda.
"This world seems inhabited by fools and psychotics." Ian kept her gaze on the rain, "You are the only exception I've seen. It bothers me."
"Why?" Gaz inquired, "There's nowhere else to go, and I don't want to go where Zim came from."
"Would you like a planet that rains almost all the time? Would you like a planet where there are fewer people and they were intelligent?"
"I'd love a place like that." Gaz admitted, twirling her straw in the glass to clink the ice, "It sounds too good to be true."
"The planet Ion is about ten million light years away from Earth. It sits alone in its own system with its own sun, stars, and moons. It rains almost all the time, and everyone there has a high IQ."
"You're kidding right?" Gaz raised a brow, finally used to having her eyes open, "You sound like some astrophysicist from one of Dib's dumb classes."
"Astrophysics? No, I don't like that mathematical crap. I just prefer planet-hopping. Or conquering, as it were."
"Ian, what the hell are you talking about?" Gaz shook her head, "You aren't making any sense."
"If I were to tell you that I was an alien, what would you say?"
"I…" Gaz was stumped at the sudden, random question, "I don't know. You're my friend. My only one, really. You don't seem weird. I don't know if it'd make any difference."
"That's reassuring. I am."
"…you aren't kidding?"
"No. I don't like to kid. Although, I did like you as a kid. Still like you in fact."
"What does that mean?"
"What does it mean to you?"
Gaz had to close her eyes and rest her forehead on her hands. Something was making her eyes water, and it wasn't the sweet and sour sauce.
"Perhaps we should adjourn this meeting to elsewhere." Ian raised her head from her hands, "Does my place sound good?"
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"Here. Towels are actually very useful in life."
Gaz rubbed at her rain-soaked hair with the fluffy green towel and lay it around her shoulders. Ian sat next to her on the couch they rested on. Gaz's eyes were starting to water again. She started shaking her head miserably.
"Now you're going to tell me I'm just a stupid little pawn in some greater scheme to blow up the earth with Zim and leave laughing as we all die." she muttered.
"I never said that." Ian replied easily, "And I don't have any scheme to blow up the earth. Why Zim is still here, I don't know."
"Why are you here?" Gaz shouted, "Why aren't you off killing everyone to conquer this hellhole of a planet?"
"Because I ordered backup and it had a six-year delay." Ian again replied easily.
"God dammit!" Gaz stomped her foot, "That isn't my point!"
"What is?"
CRACK!
Ian's head jerked to the side when Gaz's fist hit it. The human had fallen into her protective stance, eyes closed in a vicious glare and a frown firmly set on her face.
"Moody, aren't we?" Ian sounded amused.
CRACK!
Gaz didn't show any twinge at the second hit. She was very pissed off by then, and she wanted direct answers, not dodgy, flighty junk.
"Why are you here?" she said in her 'tone', the one that made ravenous dogs cower, "Why are you hanging around me?"
"Because you're the reason I decided to take this little planet." Gaz paused but didn't open her eyes. Ian had lifted one leg up to rest on the other's knee whilst rubbing at her cheek.
"This flying ball of filth was not even enough to be mentioned on the Irken maps. The Irken army is what Zim is a semi-part of, but he had been banished earlier. He's here because the army didn't want him anywhere near important planets. I came here because it was raining, and I like the rain very much.
"In any case, I thought I should just overlook this place because there was no reason to conquer it, and there was no invader evidence. Then I met you. You have the attitude of an Ionic and the intelligence to see how very stupid your race is. I like you because of that."
"But what does that mean?"
"What does it mean to you? That's what it means."
"You're being more obscure than Dib on a dumb day."
"What does it mean to you?"
Gaz let out a sigh and leaned back against the couch. She was trying to think about it, but something was clouding her head. She hated when that happened. It usually meant that there was some emotion trying to twist her judgment. Not good.
"That fuzzy feeling in your head is probably your heart trying to tell your head something. Every person has to decipher what their heart says before they know what they're thinking of. It'd be a good idea to try thinking that way."
Gaz gently rapped her knuckles against her forehead and sighed, the fog slowly starting to go away. Eventually, it lifted totally and she found herself understanding a lot of things. She turned to Ian, her eyes open again. Ian was lost in her own thoughts, waiting for Gaz to come to a conclusion.
Gaz simply grabbed Ian's shoulders, turned her to face her, and then kissed her.
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"Why are you getting up?"
"I heard someone knocking at the door."
"You've got to be kidding. I can barely hear myself over the rain."
"I'm an alien, remember? I'll be back in a second."
Gaz settled herself back down on the pillows and sheets. She let a smile touch her face for the first time in a very long while. The strangeness of the past few hours had just kind of wandered off and died a lonely death. Gaz, however, was feeling very much at peace and—happy. She was really happy for once.
Just because she felt like it, Gaz pulled on her black shirt and grabbed a pair of shorts that Ian had dropped on the ground in her haste to get dressed to answer the door. Gaz strode down the stairs and looked to the front door. She stopped.
Dib was at the door, dripping wet, and holding a gun to Ian's head.
"What?" she murmured, her eyes widening.
Ian, who had been standing still up until that point, turned around in shock.
"Gaz!" she said, "Don't—"
BANG!
The words were cut short as Ian jerked and fell silently to the floor. Dib's eyes burned and the barrel of the gun smoked. Gaz's eyes widened and her mouth opened.
And all there was…was the sound of rain.
—to be continued—