Doom Witch

Author's Note: Hello children. Are you enjoying the story thus far? I must agree, I am warped and weird but I am NOT BORING!

WOO!

Okay.

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- Chapter Nine - Not Again! -

Gaz looked around her surroundings. She had been transported onto a large ship, and then beamed down to a planet all in one day. Didn't they have to make big journeys across time and stuff to get to other planets? But then, the machinery did look pretty cool and advanced and fast.

She had been walked through what could only be described as a city, with its tall luminous buildings and strange flags dotted everywhere. They soon arrived outside a huge building, both in height and width. It was like a big gas storage thingy, because it was round too. It was black and sleek with a symbol she recognised, possibly Zim's religious cult's trademark.

After walking through endless metal corridor after gleaming endless metal corridor, they eventually reached a large door, which slid apart automatically like something out of one of those geeky nerdy sci-fi TV programmes that Dib always watched.

Except that it was real, and that there were aliens or something here. What did they want with Gaz?

As well as confused, the scary sibling of Dib Membrane stumbled as a guard tripped her over into a wide room with lots of strange aliens at the front at a control panel, with two really tall guys looming over them on a higher level of the room. They were watching the blank screen and appeared to be eating what looked like tacos, but one turned when he noticed Gaz and her little band of merry armed men.

'The guy that looked over has red eyes like Zim's,' she thought, 'Maybe it's his big brother,' she looked at the height, probably the size of a tall man a bit taller than her dad, 'His very big brother.'

"Can't get enough of these - mmmmm - tacos!" the equally as tall guy with purple eyes next to the guy with red eyes moaned, before his friend nudged him and he looked over. He dropped his slightly weird-looking taco and grinned at Gaz.

"Thank you, guardians of the - uh - what was it? Himen? Human! Yes! You may go now!" the red one said importantly, and the people standing around Gaz wandered off out of the doors. The purple - eyed alien hovered over to her.

"Hey-how do you hover?" Gaz asked, "I don't see any jet packs or anything."

"Oh my God, what kind of question is that?" the purple - eyed one said to his friend, "Hey - how do you hover? I mean - DUH! Hey, Red, how DO we hover - um - again?"

The red-eyed tall guy shrugged.

"I 'unno," he muttered, "I just know it's cool! Whhheeeeee!"

He began to zoom around the room happily, until his purple friend cleared his throat and he stopped mid-hover.

"Sorry," he mumbled, and floated over to his friend that was standing beside Gaz again, "I just like the hover thing."

"I know you do, Red, but we have business," Purple scorned, for once not being the stupid one and clearly enjoying it, then both of them peered down at Gaz, "I thought Zim said humans were tall."

"I'm a kid," Gaz said, "So I'm not fully grown yet."

"Hey - you computer panel guys!" the red one called, "Define 'kid!"

"KID!" one yelled over-dramatically, "A YOUUUUUNG GOAT!"

Gaz snarled and balled her fists. Purple floated away a bit, slightly scared.

"Um, Red?" he whispered, "What's it doing? I thought Zim's robot said it was a human, not a - a - goat?"

"Remember how stupid the robot is," Red groaned, as if defeated, "Another plan to kill Zim failed. Oh well, eject the goat-thing into space and lets go eat tacos."

"Wait!" Gaz yelled, "I'm not a goat! A kid is another name for a child. A - a-" she thought of what Zim would say, "A human worm baby!"

If the two tall guys had any suspicions, they left their faces when she said 'human worm baby'. They floated over to her again, seemingly interested once more.

"Well then," Red said sneakily, "It appears we may have a job for you after all, little human."

Gaz scowled.

"What do you want with me?" she snarled, "I don't even know who you are!"

"We are the Almighty Tallest," Red said superiorly, "Rulers of Planet Irk, or will be again once it's been repaired. Zim - uh - broke our planet, so we kinda hate him."

"Yeah," Purple seconded, "So in our evil ploy to destroy him we're going to use you as bait until he comes here to save you."

"Why would he do that?" Gaz asked.

"Because he - what was it - 'likes' you," Red told her.

"He does? Well, it won't be you killing him, then," Gaz replied.

"Didn't you know Zim was an alien?" Purple asked, changing the subject. It seemed like he had become bored and was being drawn towards the tacos but his friend stopped him, so he was trying to console his loss of the chili, such beautiful chili - - -

"Yeah, me and my stupid brother Dib are the only ones who know," she said, "He keeps trying to take over the world, but he's so bad at it."

"I feel your pain," Red agreed, "But we really need to lock you up now. Please give up any carry-on items!"

"What?" Gaz panicked, remembering her GameSlave 2 tucked safetly inside her pocket, "Can't I carry on my carry-on items to - uh - wherever I'm going which is preferably home?"

"Sorry, give 'em up." Purple said, and held out his clawed hand.

"But I - NO! I will not yield!" Gaz yelled, and tried to run away. Two mechanic arms shot out of the walls and held her arms while the tall guys searched inside her pockets. Gaz struggled, and they took out some coins, a set of spare batteries and her GameSlave.

"No!" she moaned, trying to grab it, "No! Please - not that! Anything but that!"

Red grinned and felt the sides of the GameSlave, fascinated.

"It's pretty," he murmured, "Purple, be a pal and lock the Earthanoid up, will you? I'll just play this - "

Purple waved the robot arms off Gaz and held her shoulders firmly while she jerked them, trying to get to Red. He floated her over to a strange-looking tile at the back corner of the room and put her on it. He stepped back and before she could move it slid down through the floor and a replacement tile appeared above her.

She was in pitch black now, and she felt the tile underneath her settle into the ground. Gaz swallowed and stepped forwards off of the tile. Lights suddenly filled the room all around her, making her blink. She was in a glass sphere, about the size of an average-sized bathroom. Good thing it had a toilet, she wasn't sure if these aliens possessed the excretory system.

Anyway, she didn't REALLY want to think about that.

There wasn't much of the square room outside the ball she was inside, only a large viewing screen which took up most of the wall. Suddenly, she felt a bit less angry and slightly more concerned, which wasn't like her. Maybe it was those horrible lights, beaming down mercilessly on her.

God, why wouldn't someone turn them off?

Why?

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"AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGHHH!" Dib yelled, throwing himself on the robot angrily, pounding his head off the floor again and again.

"YAAAY!" GIR squealed, "It hurts!"

Zim stood looking at the black screen with a puzzled expression on his face.

"You - stupid - robot!" Dib shouted, with each word banging the robot's head off the ground, "What - did - you - do?"

"I told them-" GIR began.

"What - did - you - do?"

"I told them - "

"What - did - you - do?"

"I'm trying to tell ya! Jeeeeeeeeeez!"

"What - did - you - okay, fine, whatever. Make it quick, the pounding your head off the floor is quite stress-relieving," Dib said.

"I told the Tallest that Zim liked Gaz! I dunno why they wanna know, but I think it has something to do with some kind of plan that they want to do and they said they would give me tacos and I just can't resist tacos and I said okay if they gave me tacos so I told them Zim liked Gaz who was your sister and I wanted the tacos but they no give me tacos and I think my head is going to explo-" GIR twittered before his head flew off and forwards, and fell right in front of Zim's feet, who didn't really notice, "Yup! I was right! YAAAAAAAAAAY!"

Dib shook his head and walked up to Zim, nudging him.

"Why did you get your leaders to kidnap my sister?" he demanded, "What did Gaz - wait a minute, this is about the fainting thing, isn't it?"

"What? Dib? No, no. I don't know why they - I didn't - what's going on?" Zim spoke to himself more than Dib, "I want answers - I WANT THEM NOW! Like - like - potatoes in a sack screaming for boiling fried fish! I NEED THE FRIED FISH!"

"I think you need to sit down, Zim," Dib said honestly, pointing to the bed. Zim shook his head vigorously until he fell down, then the screen in front began to flicker.

GIR, who had been reconnecting his head, looked up at it and grinned at the forming faces of the Almighty Tallest.

"Thank you for my tacos," he said sweetly, "They was verrrrrry nice."

"We didn't give you tacos, you stupid robot," Purple snarled, "And by the way, the human is not a goat! Hang on - "

Red patted his shoulder sympathetically and pointed toward the tacos. Purple floated over to the tacos, leaving his comrade on the screen. He acknowledged Zim on the floor and the human standing next to him.

"Hey Zim, you look a little - whoah! Look at the size of that guy's head!! It's HUGE!" he yelled, pointing at Dib, who frowned.

"My head is not big!" he cried.

"Why is his head so big?" GIR screamed, "Why is his head sooooo BIG?"

"My Tallest!" Zim said, struggling to his feet, "Forgive the interruption, sirs, but - why did you capture the Gaz creature?"

"We couldn't find Kurt Cobain, so we took the next thing," Red told him, and Zim nodded sadly.

"Yes, Nurt O'Jane has departed this world, it is sad. He is the one human that I truly connected with. I think he was Irken, you see. It is my theory, my very, very great theory of - LIFE!"

"Fandabby dozy, Zim," Red said understandingly.

Purple floated back over with a taco in his hand.

"I want the GIR Tacos!" GIR yelped, "PLEASE!"

"No!" Purple yelled, "They're MINE! MINE!"

"Umm - back to my sister?" Dib suggested, putting his hand up so he was noticed, "Where is she, and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"

"We have put her in a containment chamber directly below where we are standing now, on Planet Moriara's Irken Military Head Quarters," Purple said superiorly, "She will be held here until you, Zim, come to get her."

"Whhyyyy?" Zim moaned, "Why couldn't you just leave her here? What's the point of me going all the way to the Armada - wait a minute? Moriara? That's an Irken civilian planet!"

"Yeah, I'm visiting my Grandma," Red said happily, "And Purple's sister, but that's a different story. We need you to come here, Zim. If you don't, your friend will be eliminated in a week. Here are Moriara's co-ordinates."

The image of the Tallest disappeared and instead came up a large map. At the left hand corner was Earth, then at the far end was Planet Moriara.

"You'll never get there in a week, Zim!" Dib cried helplessly, "I don't know how they did!"

"The Irken spacecrafts are very fast, but I agree. It takes months to get from Conventia to Earth, never mind getting further in a week!" Zim cried, "My Tallest, how am I going to-"

"Have you never noticed the secret button in the Voot Cruiser before, Zim?" Red asked, "It's underneath the chair, it's very small and only to be used in events like this. We need you to get here fast. The boost will put you faster than the speed of very, very, very fast for up to nineteen galaxies, and you only need to travel past seven, so you should be there in just about a week if you leave now, Zim. I suggest you do."

"Very well, my Tallest," Zim said, still a little confused, "But I still don't understand why you-"

The screen went blank so Zim stood silently. He grabbed GIR, who was sobbing in the corner over his lost tacos and readied his pak to blast a hole out of the room. He did so, and the debris flew outwards, which attracted GIR, who chased the broken bits of plaster giggling.

"GIR, come on, we've got to ready the Voot," he snapped, and stood on a tile, waiting for it to take him up to the roof. Dib gripped Zim's arm, who looked down at his hand.

"What do you want, Dib-Stink?" Zim snarled, still a little weaker than usual, "I'm away to rescue your sister, or do you not want me to?"

"So you agree that she's been kidnapped?" Dib asked, still not letting go.

"I don't know." Zim said honestly, and tugged at his arm, but Dib held fast.

"Zim. You know I hate you."

"Yes."

"And you hate me."

"-yes?"

"I have to come with you."

"WHAT? Dib, there is no way you are coming with me. NONE! NONE, you hear me? Noooone!"

"Heeeeey! C'mon, master! The ship's a-waiting!" GIR shrieked, and Zim nodded irritably.

"Zim, you can't do this without me," Dib told Zim desperately. Zim stopped pulling and narrowed his eyes at his enemy.

"What do you mean? Tell me---" he asked suspiciously.

"Zim - I - I thought about it, about the button thing on your Voot Cruiser."

"Uh - huh?"

"Well, if it's going to go fast then if you push it and you're not controlling the ship too then you'll go off course and end up in a completely different place, and you won't get to Gaz in time!"

Zim blinked thoughtfully, and shook his head.

"GIR can-" he began.

"Zim, I wouldn't say this if it wasn't for Gaz's life. GIR's concentration is very limited, and I'm sure that you'll have to hold the button down for a while. Plus you'll be so busy steering it, someone will have to change the fuel tanks, and since when could you trust GIR to do that?" Dib said, and GIR blinked.

Zim looked at GIR, then at Dib, then up at where the Voot was.

"I really hate doing this," Zim snarled.

"Me too." Dib agreed, and held out his hand.

Zim remembered the baloney incident with the tack, but the disturbing thought of wanting Gaz back got in his way and he shuddered, then stretched his gloved hand forwards.

The nemesis' hands met and shook, so the tile shot up with the three of them on it and they were in the Voot Cruiser, Zim and Dib sitting in the large seat with GIR on a ledge slightly behind them. Zim acknowledged the location of the button and felt where it was. Strange the number of times he had had to repair his ship and he had come across it but never properly wondered what the button was for.

He started the engines and waited until they were quite far into space. He and Dib hadn't said a word to each other until Zim felt they were far enough into the never-ending vacuum of --- mystery . . .

"Okay, Dib," he said suddenly, making his temporary ally wince slightly, "On my signal, push the button. I think that when you push it, the Computer will tell us how long to hold the button down for."

"Okay." Dib said, and bent double so his finger hovered over the button slightly.

"Right. Long live the Irken Army!" Zim cried.

Dib did nothing.

"Uh - that was the signal." Zim noted.

"Yeah, but I amn't doing that." Dib said blankly, making Zim groan.

"Fine. Long live the -" Zim amended, or tried to.

"TACOS!" GIR shrieked, and Dib pushed the button and held it down.

Right enough, on the screen in front two digital numbers appeared. Zim smirked and called out to Dib, "Thirty-nine seconds!"

"Thirty-nine seconds?" Dib repeated, "That's a weird time. Okay."

After twenty-nine seconds, the Voot Cruiser's engines were tested as they began to shake under the strain.

Three---

Zim looked down at Dib.

Two----

Dib nodded, and Zim turned back to the controls.

One----

Zim prepared his hands and his bladder for imminent release.

BOOOOOM!

GIR squealed with delight and Dib fell forwards as the Voot shot off at an unbelievable speed. Zim amazingly managed to keep up with it and piloted the Cruiser well, so that even Dib (once he had re-assembled himself in an orderly manner) couldn't help but be impressed.

Maybe there was a chance they could save Gaz after all.

Maybe.

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The screen flickered and Gaz looked up at it wearily. She had been becoming constantly weaker during the three days she had been in the ball. The food she had been given was horrible and the drink was too disgustingly squidgy and alive-looking to be called a liquid.

"Hello, little human," the red leader said, "Enjoying your stay?"

"Why am I here?" Gaz moaned, "What do you want with me?"

"You're bait for Zim," the purple one obliged, "once Zim arrives, we're going to make him swap himself for your freedom and then we'll have him and watch him die very nastily."

"Why? He's one of your own!" Gaz attempted to understand.

"Do not attempt to understand!" the red leader snapped, "We have our reasons, go back to your constant pain and weakness. By the way, your Game thing? It's cool."

"Can I get it?"

"No."

Laughter, and then the screen went black.

Silence.

Gaz curled up in her ball again and waited for sleep, trying to mimic the game controls for the Vampire Piggy Slayer game.

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Dib returned from changing the fuel tanks to see Zim looking quite exhausted. He had been flying non-stop for three days, you could hardly blame him.

"You want me to take over, Zim?" Dib offered.

Zim shook his head.

"Even evil, power-obsessed aliens have to rest too, y'know." Dib said.

"Silence, Earth child," Zim snapped, "I'll rest when I need to rest. That is not now."

He yawned and Dib shook his head.

"Why do you even want to rescue Gaz?" he asked Zim.

"Who said I did? The Tallest told me to go, so I did. This has nothing to do with Gaz. It just so happens that they have her."

"I'm sure. Zim, do you care about Gaz?"

"What?"

"Do you care about her? Do you want to make sure she's okay?"

"No . . ."

Dib tutted and turned around to see GIR grinning in his face. He shuddered and looked out to the stars. The only time he was able to relax and see them was when his sister's life was a time bomb and the rescuers were her brother, an insane robot and a half-crazed alien. He looked at Zim.

"HEY! HEY! Move out of the way! Stupid starship! STUPID STARSHIP! Almighty Irk and all its Irkens! What STUPIDITY does that starship possess? Much stupidity! MUCH!" he yelled at a passing starship.

Okay, maybe a three-quarter-crazed alien.

"Zim, how about letting me drive?" he suggested, and Zim looked at him up and down before quickly jumping out of the seat to let Dib in. Dib looked at Zim, who settled into a sleeping position on the chair.

He knew that Zim couldn't sleep, but he was resting, which was good. He could go for longer without tiring.

He hoped Gaz was okay.

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A/N: Hey kiddies how did you like that one? Kind of an in betweeny chapter I think. In betweeny chapters aren't as fun but they must be done, no? Yes. Yes. YES!

Okay. I'm not mad. I just like mad stuff.

WOO!

I'm craaaaazy.

WOO!

I love tacos.

Review.