Chaotic Orchid Angel

Never Could Have Been Worse

Rated: R

Disclaimer: Jhonen Vasquez is a god. I am merely paying homage in my small and insignificant way.

Authors Note: This is my first Invader Zim fic. Funny how I never considered writing one of these before. This chapter will be a trial run, just to see if I like it and if you like it. I have no idea where I'm going with it, all I know is that I adore Gaz and if I were a Zim character in real life, I would be Gir. I guess I have that effect on people. Anyway, onto my story!

NEVER COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Gaz Membrane stared in silent contemplation at the idiocy of her older brothers' antics. Yet again he was planning another foolhardy attempt to outwit Zim. Even at the age of eighteen, he still had not given up. Zim and Dib had been feuding for the past six years and had no intention of ending it anytime soon. Not that she had cared. While most of the time they were simply an annoyance that she had learned to tune out, sometimes they provided her with unimaginable amusement. Like when they nearly killed each other. Lately, however, nothing amused her.

She sighed in annoyance when Dib screeched in pain. He had shocked himself while working on something that would no doubt end up broken.

"AAAHH!!!! GAZ!!! HELP ME!!! MY CLOTHES ARE ON FIRE!!!!!!"

Rolling her eyes, she stood up from the table and grabbed an emergency fire extinguisher. Aiming for her moronic brother, she fired and soon Dib was nothing but a quivering mass of white foam.

He sighed with relief. "Thanks Gaz."

"Whatever." She turned to leave. He saw her walking away and called out.

"Wait a sec Gaz!"

"What?" she growled, not bothering to turn around.

Dib noticed her obvious irritation toward him and sighed. She seemed edgier than normal.

"Nothing, nevermind."

"Whatever." She continued on her way out and went to her bedroom.

Dib watched her go and felt a tug on his heart. Ever since she had turned seventeen she had become even more distant from him. It worried him that she didn't even crack one of her usual biting jibes at him for setting himself on fire. He found himself wondering if she had become suicidal again. That thought chilled him like no other. The last time she had attempted suicide she had nearly succeeded. It happed during the middle of his sophomore year in high skool and her freshman year. It was Iggins of all people who had found her. She was stuffed with sleeping pills and nearly unconscious in the photography lab at SKOOL. It was pure luck he had stumbled onto her. He had snuck out of class to play a new game on his Gameslave 2 and went to the photo lab where he was sure no one would find him. Apparently Gaz had thought the same thing. He tried to wake her up, thinking he could brag about his new game and prove what a better gamer he was compared to her, but when she wouldn't awaken, he panicked and called the paramedics.

Dib remembered the tears that poured from his eyes on the way to the hospital. He remembered the shock he felt when his father told him that he was in the middle of an experiment and couldn't talk to him at the moment when he called to tell him what had happened. He remembered hearing the sound of Gaz retching and weeping when she awoke and realize she was alive. He held her in his arms and wept silent tears as she cried herself to sleep. He vowed on that day to find out the cause of her depression and never let it get any worse.

The hospital tried to send her to a psychiatric rehabilitation unit but since her father was not there to sign the forms, they had no choice but to send her home. Dib had asked her the reason why she did it and she responded quite simply,

"I was tired."

She never spoke of it again.