Doom Witch
Author's Note: Hey fans! Yeah . . . it's ok, I know you all hate me. *sad face* But hey ho, I'm writing a jolly old story about jolly old Zim yeah shut up now me, okay, woo! Umm . . . next chapter up now people of the world, thanks to all who reviewed. And it seems that less and less peoples are reviewing? What's with that, eh? Do you not love me anymore, eh? Eh? And Bonez . . . why have you not updated your rockingful story in ages? I am very loneful . . . anyhoo here's da next chapter . . . OF DOOOOM! It doesn't have much Zim POV in it but it's pretty important . . . dude!
Oh and to people who keep moaning about Zim and Gaz not being together . . . JUST READ IT! Okay . . . I'm not saying what happens in the end but I have a pretty cunning and confusing plan up my sleeve so don't despair! It's not the last you've seen of Zim and Gaz, in fact we have an encounter next chapter with them! But I'm saying nothing more! Just read it know, okay! NOWWW! Read! Now is the time for the reading!
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- Chapter Twenty-One - Hiding From Inevitability -
"YEAH!" GIR enthused, late the next morning. It was a Sundee and MAX had just suggested that the two robots stop at nothing until they get Jed and Zim together again, as the two Irkens were avoiding each other. Both of the Invaders were either too proud or found it too awkward to speak first, so it was up to the robots, both at least slightly wonky, to make sure that it worked, "Yeah totallllllleeee! That's good tacos . . . "
GIR went off in a dream, and the other robot, who was a bit hyper too, hit GIR on the head and shook him by his tin shoulders. "Keep it together, man!" MAX cried, sobbing, "Keep it togethhhhher!"
"DUDE!" GIR squealed, and the two robots hugged, "You like . . . DUDE! You saved my nostrils! DUUUUUUUDE!"
Hugging again, the two eventually broke their touching embrace and began their not-too-terribly-intellectual plotting as to how to get Zim and the younger Invader Jed together. GIR was the one coming up with the most creative ideas, all be them impossible and not right.
"How about . . . " GIR began to suggest, then looked as thoughtful as he could for a few seconds, then got bored and sat down on the floor. About ten minutes later he stood up again and resumed his thinking position, scratching his metal chin, "Whhheeee hoooo! I gotta beard of stubble! MAX! Feel my stubbly beard! Whhheeeeee!"
MAX giggled, tolerating the less intelligent robot's antics, in fact the SIR Unit found it quite amusing, and quite liked the GIR thing, which was another reason he wanted his mistress and Zim to stop fighting and like each other, so he could remain friends with GIR, or whatever kind of relationships crazy robots had. MAX had watched Jed last night, sitting on the sofa, trying to watch the thing the Humanoids called "T.V." but evidently having something bothering her in her mind. The slightly kooky robot recognised this emotion from a couple of times he had seen it in Jed's eyes towards Zim before, as well as a couple more Irkens back at the Armada. It was called "affection", which could and potentially would evolve into a much stronger force known as "love".
MAX had no experience of it, Irkens were not encouraged to fall in love, and few chose to, and if they did then it was often unwillingly. He wondered how this could happen to Jed, who had discussed the matter of "love" on the journey to Earth in the Voot Cruiser, and how she thought it made the mind weak and vulnerable, and she would never allow herself to be in such a position. Well, she wasn't there yet, but she was getting there with progressing speed, MAX thought, and realised she knew she was getting into that circumstance, thus the reason she was avoiding Zim, down in the Voot Room fixing the ships. Jed, however, was not helping him, but out in the garden polishing up the gnomes' defense chips.
MAX was just sitting, pondering random stuff, when GIR came running from the other end of the room and crashed into him, screaming at the top of his lungs, "KITTY KAT!" he shrieked, and MAX was knocked off balance, immediately leaping up and a great amount of guns erupting from his head compartment. GIR stood up, giggling, then noticed the guns and stood looking at them with an amused expression on his pretty damn stupid face. GIR clasped his hands in front of him and toed the ground shyly.
"I'm soweeeee," he claimed, and MAX returned the guns to their department, having had no intention of shooting GIR without orders from Jed, "I just love youuuu!"
MAX nodded, and the two robots hugged again. GIR bounced up and down, "So whadda we gonna doooooooo?"
"About what?"
"Zimmmy! And . . . and Jeddy! They gonna get married!"
MAX was now having second thoughts about getting the two Irkens together. It was because he knew it would be a successful mission, as the two felt mutually the same way about each other, but he knew that it would be going against the Tallests' wishes, therefore getting Jed into trouble. He also knew Jed didn't want to be in that situation. "I dunno . . . " he said doubtfully, but GIR wasn't listening or didn't care, and flung himself into the toilet, head first.
"Flush meeeee!" he gurgled, his head submerged in the toilet water. MAX sighed and stepped into the toilet, flushing the two down to the Communication Bay. Once there, MAX told GIR to activate the Computer system.
"Whaaaaaat?" the Computer whined once GIR finally stopped singing and did as MAX asked, "Oh. Robots. Great. And there was me thinking that Demi Moore had finally come to sweep me away to . . . somewhere . . . not here . . . where there's lots of nice sweet things and chocolate tarts . . . "
"Ahem!" MAX interrupted, and GIR looked at the other robot.
"AHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" GIR emphasised, and there was an audible sigh from the Computer.
"What is it?" he moaned, "I'm like . . . expecting some . . . one . . . "
"Liar! Liar! Bum's on fire!" GIR sang, prancing now. MAX grabbed him and made the kooky robot lean in.
"You're the only one he'll obey. Tell him to get Jed and Zim down here. Tell him to lie about something or other. Like there's an emergency." MAX told him. GIR looked very confused for a moment, then shrieked "Sheep!" and nodded, looking up to the roof, even though there was no specific place to speak to the Computer.
"I love youuuu," GIR told the Computer, and it let out a gasp. MAX nudged GIR, "Oh yeahhh! I don't. Can you get Zimmy and Jeddy in herey so they kissey?"
"Ahhh, romance . . . " the Computer began with a kind of distant longing in his electronic voice, "Much freer than anything I ever . . . yeah, okay. What's in it for me?"
"A front seat view of the kisseeeey!" GIR enticed. The Computer made a scoffing sound, then reconsidered.
"Very well." It agreed, then programmed its voice to boom around the entire base, "Emergency! EMERGENCY! Three humans in the Communication Bay! All reinforcements needed! That means you! Zim! Jed! GET IN HERE! EMERGENCY!"
The full base thing clicked off and the Computer spoke, "I suppose you want them in here alone," he said, sounding very proud of himself, "So I suggest you two get out of here, and I will lock the doors until the two give in to their desires. Knowing Zim . . . that could take weeks."
MAX nodded and dragged GIR to one of the elevators, sliding up into the house as Jed came down one pipe and Zim up from another. They both hurtled forward into the Communication Bay, stumbling forwards with guns in their hands and the guns in their paks out and loaded. Coming to a halt in the centre, Zim lowered his weapon and avoided Jed's eye.
"They must be hiding," she whispered. He nodded, still not looking at her. Both crawled around in opposite directions looking for the enemy. They must have been looking for about an hour, when Jed finally sighed heavily and lowered her tense gun, "They're not here," she said, "maybe they escaped."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Zim yelled, looking up at the ceiling in desperation, "Nothing escapes the great ZIM! Computer!"
"Yes?" it replied, surprisingly alert, that it shocked even Zim.
"Uh . . . are the invaders still on the premises?" he asked, his voice wavering from the surprise of his Computer being so ready to answer him. There was a hesitation, the Computer was pretending to check the radars, then came the negative response. "How did they escape?" Zim demanded, raising his voice, "How did the vagabonds and miscreants escape the impenetrable lair of ZIM?"
Jed came up behind him and put an unsteady hand on his shoulder, not saying anything. Zim didn't resent her gloved claws resting on him, in fact he felt slightly comforted, but he knew he shouldn't be. "Oh come on!" the Computer moaned, getting annoyed with its master, "there were no intruders. Okay? Okay."
"Wh . . . what?" Zim stammered, horror and anger in his voice, "Computer . . . you TRICKED me! You dare to trick ME? I am ZIIIM!"
"I - uh - malfunctioning! Must immediately go back to sleep! MAYDAY!" the Computer improvised, then pretended to switch off, but its sight sensors were still on and could see what was going on, because he did so enjoy a love story.
"Foolish devise of doom and treachery!" hissed Zim nastily almost hyperventilating, "I ought to get GIR to eat it up like a squawking chicken!" He turned round and found that his face was almost touching with Jed's, who looked equally as shocked, "A . . . squawking . . . squawking chicken . . . " He swallowed nervously, and their eyes searched each other for lies and deceit and mistrust and all the things they shouldn't be allowing to happen but both of them did so much.
They exchanged oxygen and tilted their heads simultaneously, Zim leaning down a bit to let his mouth crush into hers hungrily, as if he were trying to bruise her lips or alternatively eat her alive. He kissed her so furiously that Jed wasn't sure if it was an attack or not, but if it was then this was the way she wanted to die. Her arms that hung by her sides swung instinctively and wrapped around his neck, his arms on her waist pulling the assassin nearer him. Jed moaned briefly, but it was the only resistance she made before her free will was gone and Zim was now part of her, and she knew it was wrong . . . but somehow it was right at the same time. How could something that had once seemed so clear now be the most confusing thing in the world?
"Kill Zim," the Tallest had said, "do that and everything you and your sister dreamed of will be yours. You'll be honoured for the rest of both your lives in the highest way possible!"
How hard could it be? Jed was a bloodthirsty ambitious assassin who knew how to shoot a gun, how to compromise her life and the most painful ways to torture and kill her enemy. But she did not know how to love, she had never wished to.
But now it all seemed so far away and long ago, all this talk of killing Zim and avenging her Gemini sister, Tak. Tak . . . what would she say? But all of a sudden, Jed realized she didn't care. It didn't matter right now . . . there would be other times. There would be consequences to this forbidden lust she and her would-be victim shared, but the Tallest were wrong about Zim. Sure he was insane and demented, but his power and abilities were under-estimated. He would be, should be, a valuable ally.
But she daren't think about the consequences right then, they would come. That was inevitable. And after all, there was no point in hiding from inevitability, because it would find her. It would come.
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Meanwhile, Gaz Membrane sat in her room wringing her hands, thinking about Zim, goddammit, she always thought about Zim and hated her own guts for it. Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit a hundred thousand times.
"Why won't you get out of my head, you damned bastard?" Gaz murmured out of the open window, the chill getting to her, the warmth had long been stolen from the room, "I'll be damned if I feel like this forever." She banged her fist off the wall, scribbled with threatening, dark messages and Anarchy symbols, pentagrams drawn in black marker pen and paint were scattered all over her bed sheets and curtains. This was the result of her pain and anger.
Cursing, she held her dad's best kitchen knife to her left wrist, the cool blade sending shivers up her arm. Several painkillers sat in her mouth, the bitter taste of them making her eyes squint, a bottle of cheap Vodka she had found in her father's room open and already half-empty. Or was it half- full? Funny things like that came to her mind, like the chicken and the egg, and whether there was a word that rhymed with orange, because in the short thirteen and three quarters of her life she had lived she had never found nor cared to find a solution to those stupid little things that so easily confused the human race.
As she prepared to drag the blade across her wrist, a knock at the door followed by it opening cautiously caused her to jump and the vodka spilled over her carefully drawn offensive symbols and pentagrams on her duvet. The knife slipped and fell into the mattress, leaving only a scratch on Gaz's pale skin.
Dib entered the room with the word "Gaz?" on his lips, but she never heard him say it because his eyes were too busy surveying the situation, his eyes flitting over the knife, the scratch on her exposed wrist, the spilt vodka and the fuzzy marker on the bedsheets, and finally her mouth stuffed with a handful of paracetamol.
He ran over to her, threw the knife and the vodka bottle across the room away from her, hoisted her up by her arm and swung her round like a child that had embarrassed its mother in the supermarket, and slapped her back. The pills fell out like teeth, half melted in her mouth. He ordered her to stick two fingers down her throat, and Gaz was so shocked by the tone in his voice that she did, and she threw up all over him, then sat down on the soaked bed, tears streaming down her face, black eyeliner on her cheeks. She and Dib sat there, not looking at each other, not saying anything, just panting and gasping for the air that no longer seemed real.
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Consequence came quicker to Invader Jed than she expected, and despite her knowing it would come she was still surprised out of her wits at the face on the transmission screen. The Computer had announced some time after that a transmission was coming through for Jed, and although she was confused at to who it could be, Zim obliged to leave, casting Jed a long sideways glance at Jed before the tubes took him upwards out of sight.
Jed turned to the screen and pressed a button to connect with the display image. At the sight of who it was she yelped and jumped back in horror, her red eyes wide with terror. Yes, yes, she knew who this was. Slightly taller and more forceful looking than Jed with fierce purple eyes and a wicked smirk that showed she was just thrilled to be getting such a reaction from her twin, her Gemini.
Jed found a voice, even if it was not quite the one she usually used, "T- Tak?" she gasped, her eyes still wide and her gloved hands by her sides, outstretched tensely, staggering towards the screen, leaning on the control panel looking at her magnified sister on screen with complete disbelief, "I . . . how . . . I thought you were hiding? . . . I . . . how the Hell did you find me, Tak?"
Tak chuckled in that nasty, superior tone. Jed had a much calmer accent than her sister, but apart from small differences like that they were almost identical. "Obviously not expecting me, then?" she replied slowly in her high-pitched English accent, "Well, no matter."
Jed was coming to terms with seeing her sister again and wanted an explanation before she let her Gemini patronise her like she had always done before, "Answer my question, Tak. How did you find me . . . and . . . just WHAT? Why . . . I don't understand!" Jed stammered, unable to find the words she wanted to express.
"Not glad to see me, Jedalla?" Tak sneered. Jed flinched at her real name and the tone Tak used, but managed a glare which told her sister she wasn't going to let this drop. Tak sighed and let out a little giggle, "I love you too!" Still Jed held her glare, strong and steady although soon it would waver, "I've been looking for you for so long, little sister," Tak said, "When I heard you were on Devastis I searched for you but you must have left by the time I found your unit, so I tried to get hold of the Tallest but if you aren't a registered Invader you could wait for years before getting a transmission through to them . . . so I befriended Zenin, the Red Tallest's grandmother and used her transmission screen to contact them. They had an interesting proposition for me and were only too happy to give me the co-ordinates of your whereabouts . . . " Tak trailed off, giving her sister a funny little look, "However, I was very surprised to hear that you are staying with no other than Invader Zim . . . "
"There are reasons beyond my control for that!" Jed protested, staring up at her sister with a mixture of strange emotions. Uneasiness, anger, joy at seeing her sister, pain, betrayal . . . both to Zim and to Tak . . .
"Yes, yes, I've heard the story of how his stupid tin can destroyed your Drill A House device. You fool, Jed. You utter fool. You should have killed him when you had him! The Tallest would have come for you!" Tak scolded her like a child, and Jed felt her blood boil. Why did she have to be so incompetent after so long, they hadn't talked for years but still she hadn't changed? Her attitude had remained unaltered despite her being defeated by the biggest "disgrace" to the Irken race, her ego remained the size of a football stadium.
"How dare you?! There was no way to contact the Tallest! I had to compromise!" Jed cried, anger fuelling her.
"You didn't have to do anything other than what you were ordered to do! You had your gun, you should have killed him and thought about the consequences later! You were always weak-minded!" Tak snapped.
"Who's the Invader here?" Jed screamed, now full of fury, "Who actually lived the dream, Tak? I did! Little me, little Jed did! So don't you patronise me because I did what you never could, Tak! My true mission was always to find you and make you an Invader again . . . I always dreamed I'd see you again, Tak, but not like this . . . not like this . . . " Jed trailed off, her voice had become weaker during her speech, and Tak was extremely surprised at the outburst.
"And what of Zim?" Tak growled menacingly, but Jed had long since drooped, her shoulders slumped and eyes on the floor, at her boots.
Jed shrugged uselessly, helplessly, "What of Zim . . . ? I don't know . . . what of him . . . it's all messed up . . . " Her pride was gone, her eyes refused to meet her sisters'. She flopped backwards, sitting on the cold hard floor she and Zim had been kissing on not so very long ago. Zim . . .
Tak nodded at her sister. She appeared to be thinking about something pretty deeply, her eyes were flitting around the room, settling on the small young Irken on the ground, appearing to be so much smaller than she herself was, even if Jed was only a couple of inches shorter than Tak. She seemed so much younger, yet less naïve and more aware of the crap around her. Tak took this in as she decided not to judge her sister too harshly.
"Fine." Was all she chose to say. "I'll see you in about four months then, kid. I'm with the Armada and they're not far from Earth, so I'd figure I'd come and help you out with your precious Invader's mission. I'll . . . supervise . . . see if you can kill him yourself, maybe then you can prove yourself to me. Bye, Jed."
At Tak's announcement of her coming to Earth, Jed's head shot up, eyes wide and disbelieving, as much so if not more as she had been when Tak's face had first appeared on the screen. It was only when Jed could no longer see Tak's face that she began to scream.
"NO! NO, NO! TAK! TAK! NO! DON'T . . . NO! NOT HERE, NOT NOW! TAK! TAK! COME BACK! TAK!" she yelled at the blank screen, and so desperate was she that she didn't even realise Zim was coming up behind her. He hadn't seen Tak herself, only heard Jed, the assassin he had kissed, the assassin he found himself so terrifyingly attracted to, screaming the name of his long- gone nemesis.
"Hello, Jed," he said from behind her, eyes livid and excited at the same time, mixed together with a nice dosage of sheer confusion and a bitter taste in his mouth called betrayal. Had she betrayed him? Or was this her plan? Jed . . . she made him so angry, yet so incredibly turned on at the same time.
Jed whipped around, jumping to her feet, her face tense with screaming and desperation, and her jaw remained open with shock. Things were just getting worse and worse for Jed, when a short while ago everything seemed so right even when she knew it would never be accepted by anyone else. But for some reason, because of him, she couldn't help how she felt . . . when she had been trained so thoroughly in the art of staying under control and keeping her cool. Emotion had had its effect on Invader Jed and left its scornful imprint, and now she didn't know what to do.
"Zim . . . " she began, but he waved her off flippantly.
"Was this the plan, Jed?" he snapped, "Was this is all the time? Tak? She's alive, isn't she? And you've signed my DEATH CERTIFICATE?! Well, Jed, you stooopid monkey, it won't work out. All this means . . . all we mean . . . is that I am no longer able to kill you. But I can't look at you. Which is why . . . which is why I'm going for a walk."
"Zim, no!" Jed cried, "I can explain! Zim - " but he was already walking away from her, "I swear . . . no . . . "
"Explaining time is not now!" Zim said, "I have to . . . clear my head. Oh . . . what I came down to tell you was that I fixed your Voot Cruiser. If you're not here when I get back, I'll know where you are. Or not are. Or something. Goodbye, Jed. It's probably for the best . . . but we'll never know."
Jed watched Zim travel up the tube until he was gone. She had never felt so angry, confused and upset in all her life.
"We'll know, Zim, I've not given up yet . . . " she murmured to the ceiling, "And I'll be here when you get back . . . I promise." And with that she sat down on the floor with her knees pulled up against her chest, staring at her gloved hands and how much trouble they had caused.
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"What were you thinking, you stupid, stupid girl?!" Dib yelled at his sister, "You don't know what suicide is! You're . . . you're life's not THAT BAD! Gaz . . . Gaz listen to me!" Dib tried desperately, holding onto her shoulders, but Gaz ran out of the door quicker than he expected without saying a word, and he gaped after her before gathering his senses and grabbing his trenchcoat, hurtling out of the front door into the dark, rainy night.
Little did he know that Zim, who was running from his own demons, was also out there tonight. He was about to find out.
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A/N: WOOOOOOO! Finished! This one took me ages to write for some reason . . . hmmmm evil influences of doom! Not much comedy in this one, really. Sorry, guys. More Zim and Gaz next chapter, which is incidentally called "Feeling Sorry For Gaz". Basic synopsis is that Zim on his walk bumps in to Dib who is looking for Gaz and Zim reluctantly agrees to help find her. Again here we see Kel and Sim, the two farmers that GIR stayed with ages ago. Remember? Of course you do . . .
Anyway Gaz is in the field trying to hide. One of them finds her. Which one will it be, Zim or Dib? Finally we get more from the two rivals, yay! Please review peopleses!
Danke!
"I wanted freedom, but I'm restricted. I tried to give you up, but I'm addicted." - Time Is Running Out, Muse. (very very very very cool song of doom people! ^_^)
Author's Note: Hey fans! Yeah . . . it's ok, I know you all hate me. *sad face* But hey ho, I'm writing a jolly old story about jolly old Zim yeah shut up now me, okay, woo! Umm . . . next chapter up now people of the world, thanks to all who reviewed. And it seems that less and less peoples are reviewing? What's with that, eh? Do you not love me anymore, eh? Eh? And Bonez . . . why have you not updated your rockingful story in ages? I am very loneful . . . anyhoo here's da next chapter . . . OF DOOOOM! It doesn't have much Zim POV in it but it's pretty important . . . dude!
Oh and to people who keep moaning about Zim and Gaz not being together . . . JUST READ IT! Okay . . . I'm not saying what happens in the end but I have a pretty cunning and confusing plan up my sleeve so don't despair! It's not the last you've seen of Zim and Gaz, in fact we have an encounter next chapter with them! But I'm saying nothing more! Just read it know, okay! NOWWW! Read! Now is the time for the reading!
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- Chapter Twenty-One - Hiding From Inevitability -
"YEAH!" GIR enthused, late the next morning. It was a Sundee and MAX had just suggested that the two robots stop at nothing until they get Jed and Zim together again, as the two Irkens were avoiding each other. Both of the Invaders were either too proud or found it too awkward to speak first, so it was up to the robots, both at least slightly wonky, to make sure that it worked, "Yeah totallllllleeee! That's good tacos . . . "
GIR went off in a dream, and the other robot, who was a bit hyper too, hit GIR on the head and shook him by his tin shoulders. "Keep it together, man!" MAX cried, sobbing, "Keep it togethhhhher!"
"DUDE!" GIR squealed, and the two robots hugged, "You like . . . DUDE! You saved my nostrils! DUUUUUUUDE!"
Hugging again, the two eventually broke their touching embrace and began their not-too-terribly-intellectual plotting as to how to get Zim and the younger Invader Jed together. GIR was the one coming up with the most creative ideas, all be them impossible and not right.
"How about . . . " GIR began to suggest, then looked as thoughtful as he could for a few seconds, then got bored and sat down on the floor. About ten minutes later he stood up again and resumed his thinking position, scratching his metal chin, "Whhheeee hoooo! I gotta beard of stubble! MAX! Feel my stubbly beard! Whhheeeeee!"
MAX giggled, tolerating the less intelligent robot's antics, in fact the SIR Unit found it quite amusing, and quite liked the GIR thing, which was another reason he wanted his mistress and Zim to stop fighting and like each other, so he could remain friends with GIR, or whatever kind of relationships crazy robots had. MAX had watched Jed last night, sitting on the sofa, trying to watch the thing the Humanoids called "T.V." but evidently having something bothering her in her mind. The slightly kooky robot recognised this emotion from a couple of times he had seen it in Jed's eyes towards Zim before, as well as a couple more Irkens back at the Armada. It was called "affection", which could and potentially would evolve into a much stronger force known as "love".
MAX had no experience of it, Irkens were not encouraged to fall in love, and few chose to, and if they did then it was often unwillingly. He wondered how this could happen to Jed, who had discussed the matter of "love" on the journey to Earth in the Voot Cruiser, and how she thought it made the mind weak and vulnerable, and she would never allow herself to be in such a position. Well, she wasn't there yet, but she was getting there with progressing speed, MAX thought, and realised she knew she was getting into that circumstance, thus the reason she was avoiding Zim, down in the Voot Room fixing the ships. Jed, however, was not helping him, but out in the garden polishing up the gnomes' defense chips.
MAX was just sitting, pondering random stuff, when GIR came running from the other end of the room and crashed into him, screaming at the top of his lungs, "KITTY KAT!" he shrieked, and MAX was knocked off balance, immediately leaping up and a great amount of guns erupting from his head compartment. GIR stood up, giggling, then noticed the guns and stood looking at them with an amused expression on his pretty damn stupid face. GIR clasped his hands in front of him and toed the ground shyly.
"I'm soweeeee," he claimed, and MAX returned the guns to their department, having had no intention of shooting GIR without orders from Jed, "I just love youuuu!"
MAX nodded, and the two robots hugged again. GIR bounced up and down, "So whadda we gonna doooooooo?"
"About what?"
"Zimmmy! And . . . and Jeddy! They gonna get married!"
MAX was now having second thoughts about getting the two Irkens together. It was because he knew it would be a successful mission, as the two felt mutually the same way about each other, but he knew that it would be going against the Tallests' wishes, therefore getting Jed into trouble. He also knew Jed didn't want to be in that situation. "I dunno . . . " he said doubtfully, but GIR wasn't listening or didn't care, and flung himself into the toilet, head first.
"Flush meeeee!" he gurgled, his head submerged in the toilet water. MAX sighed and stepped into the toilet, flushing the two down to the Communication Bay. Once there, MAX told GIR to activate the Computer system.
"Whaaaaaat?" the Computer whined once GIR finally stopped singing and did as MAX asked, "Oh. Robots. Great. And there was me thinking that Demi Moore had finally come to sweep me away to . . . somewhere . . . not here . . . where there's lots of nice sweet things and chocolate tarts . . . "
"Ahem!" MAX interrupted, and GIR looked at the other robot.
"AHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" GIR emphasised, and there was an audible sigh from the Computer.
"What is it?" he moaned, "I'm like . . . expecting some . . . one . . . "
"Liar! Liar! Bum's on fire!" GIR sang, prancing now. MAX grabbed him and made the kooky robot lean in.
"You're the only one he'll obey. Tell him to get Jed and Zim down here. Tell him to lie about something or other. Like there's an emergency." MAX told him. GIR looked very confused for a moment, then shrieked "Sheep!" and nodded, looking up to the roof, even though there was no specific place to speak to the Computer.
"I love youuuu," GIR told the Computer, and it let out a gasp. MAX nudged GIR, "Oh yeahhh! I don't. Can you get Zimmy and Jeddy in herey so they kissey?"
"Ahhh, romance . . . " the Computer began with a kind of distant longing in his electronic voice, "Much freer than anything I ever . . . yeah, okay. What's in it for me?"
"A front seat view of the kisseeeey!" GIR enticed. The Computer made a scoffing sound, then reconsidered.
"Very well." It agreed, then programmed its voice to boom around the entire base, "Emergency! EMERGENCY! Three humans in the Communication Bay! All reinforcements needed! That means you! Zim! Jed! GET IN HERE! EMERGENCY!"
The full base thing clicked off and the Computer spoke, "I suppose you want them in here alone," he said, sounding very proud of himself, "So I suggest you two get out of here, and I will lock the doors until the two give in to their desires. Knowing Zim . . . that could take weeks."
MAX nodded and dragged GIR to one of the elevators, sliding up into the house as Jed came down one pipe and Zim up from another. They both hurtled forward into the Communication Bay, stumbling forwards with guns in their hands and the guns in their paks out and loaded. Coming to a halt in the centre, Zim lowered his weapon and avoided Jed's eye.
"They must be hiding," she whispered. He nodded, still not looking at her. Both crawled around in opposite directions looking for the enemy. They must have been looking for about an hour, when Jed finally sighed heavily and lowered her tense gun, "They're not here," she said, "maybe they escaped."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Zim yelled, looking up at the ceiling in desperation, "Nothing escapes the great ZIM! Computer!"
"Yes?" it replied, surprisingly alert, that it shocked even Zim.
"Uh . . . are the invaders still on the premises?" he asked, his voice wavering from the surprise of his Computer being so ready to answer him. There was a hesitation, the Computer was pretending to check the radars, then came the negative response. "How did they escape?" Zim demanded, raising his voice, "How did the vagabonds and miscreants escape the impenetrable lair of ZIM?"
Jed came up behind him and put an unsteady hand on his shoulder, not saying anything. Zim didn't resent her gloved claws resting on him, in fact he felt slightly comforted, but he knew he shouldn't be. "Oh come on!" the Computer moaned, getting annoyed with its master, "there were no intruders. Okay? Okay."
"Wh . . . what?" Zim stammered, horror and anger in his voice, "Computer . . . you TRICKED me! You dare to trick ME? I am ZIIIM!"
"I - uh - malfunctioning! Must immediately go back to sleep! MAYDAY!" the Computer improvised, then pretended to switch off, but its sight sensors were still on and could see what was going on, because he did so enjoy a love story.
"Foolish devise of doom and treachery!" hissed Zim nastily almost hyperventilating, "I ought to get GIR to eat it up like a squawking chicken!" He turned round and found that his face was almost touching with Jed's, who looked equally as shocked, "A . . . squawking . . . squawking chicken . . . " He swallowed nervously, and their eyes searched each other for lies and deceit and mistrust and all the things they shouldn't be allowing to happen but both of them did so much.
They exchanged oxygen and tilted their heads simultaneously, Zim leaning down a bit to let his mouth crush into hers hungrily, as if he were trying to bruise her lips or alternatively eat her alive. He kissed her so furiously that Jed wasn't sure if it was an attack or not, but if it was then this was the way she wanted to die. Her arms that hung by her sides swung instinctively and wrapped around his neck, his arms on her waist pulling the assassin nearer him. Jed moaned briefly, but it was the only resistance she made before her free will was gone and Zim was now part of her, and she knew it was wrong . . . but somehow it was right at the same time. How could something that had once seemed so clear now be the most confusing thing in the world?
"Kill Zim," the Tallest had said, "do that and everything you and your sister dreamed of will be yours. You'll be honoured for the rest of both your lives in the highest way possible!"
How hard could it be? Jed was a bloodthirsty ambitious assassin who knew how to shoot a gun, how to compromise her life and the most painful ways to torture and kill her enemy. But she did not know how to love, she had never wished to.
But now it all seemed so far away and long ago, all this talk of killing Zim and avenging her Gemini sister, Tak. Tak . . . what would she say? But all of a sudden, Jed realized she didn't care. It didn't matter right now . . . there would be other times. There would be consequences to this forbidden lust she and her would-be victim shared, but the Tallest were wrong about Zim. Sure he was insane and demented, but his power and abilities were under-estimated. He would be, should be, a valuable ally.
But she daren't think about the consequences right then, they would come. That was inevitable. And after all, there was no point in hiding from inevitability, because it would find her. It would come.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Meanwhile, Gaz Membrane sat in her room wringing her hands, thinking about Zim, goddammit, she always thought about Zim and hated her own guts for it. Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit a hundred thousand times.
"Why won't you get out of my head, you damned bastard?" Gaz murmured out of the open window, the chill getting to her, the warmth had long been stolen from the room, "I'll be damned if I feel like this forever." She banged her fist off the wall, scribbled with threatening, dark messages and Anarchy symbols, pentagrams drawn in black marker pen and paint were scattered all over her bed sheets and curtains. This was the result of her pain and anger.
Cursing, she held her dad's best kitchen knife to her left wrist, the cool blade sending shivers up her arm. Several painkillers sat in her mouth, the bitter taste of them making her eyes squint, a bottle of cheap Vodka she had found in her father's room open and already half-empty. Or was it half- full? Funny things like that came to her mind, like the chicken and the egg, and whether there was a word that rhymed with orange, because in the short thirteen and three quarters of her life she had lived she had never found nor cared to find a solution to those stupid little things that so easily confused the human race.
As she prepared to drag the blade across her wrist, a knock at the door followed by it opening cautiously caused her to jump and the vodka spilled over her carefully drawn offensive symbols and pentagrams on her duvet. The knife slipped and fell into the mattress, leaving only a scratch on Gaz's pale skin.
Dib entered the room with the word "Gaz?" on his lips, but she never heard him say it because his eyes were too busy surveying the situation, his eyes flitting over the knife, the scratch on her exposed wrist, the spilt vodka and the fuzzy marker on the bedsheets, and finally her mouth stuffed with a handful of paracetamol.
He ran over to her, threw the knife and the vodka bottle across the room away from her, hoisted her up by her arm and swung her round like a child that had embarrassed its mother in the supermarket, and slapped her back. The pills fell out like teeth, half melted in her mouth. He ordered her to stick two fingers down her throat, and Gaz was so shocked by the tone in his voice that she did, and she threw up all over him, then sat down on the soaked bed, tears streaming down her face, black eyeliner on her cheeks. She and Dib sat there, not looking at each other, not saying anything, just panting and gasping for the air that no longer seemed real.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Consequence came quicker to Invader Jed than she expected, and despite her knowing it would come she was still surprised out of her wits at the face on the transmission screen. The Computer had announced some time after that a transmission was coming through for Jed, and although she was confused at to who it could be, Zim obliged to leave, casting Jed a long sideways glance at Jed before the tubes took him upwards out of sight.
Jed turned to the screen and pressed a button to connect with the display image. At the sight of who it was she yelped and jumped back in horror, her red eyes wide with terror. Yes, yes, she knew who this was. Slightly taller and more forceful looking than Jed with fierce purple eyes and a wicked smirk that showed she was just thrilled to be getting such a reaction from her twin, her Gemini.
Jed found a voice, even if it was not quite the one she usually used, "T- Tak?" she gasped, her eyes still wide and her gloved hands by her sides, outstretched tensely, staggering towards the screen, leaning on the control panel looking at her magnified sister on screen with complete disbelief, "I . . . how . . . I thought you were hiding? . . . I . . . how the Hell did you find me, Tak?"
Tak chuckled in that nasty, superior tone. Jed had a much calmer accent than her sister, but apart from small differences like that they were almost identical. "Obviously not expecting me, then?" she replied slowly in her high-pitched English accent, "Well, no matter."
Jed was coming to terms with seeing her sister again and wanted an explanation before she let her Gemini patronise her like she had always done before, "Answer my question, Tak. How did you find me . . . and . . . just WHAT? Why . . . I don't understand!" Jed stammered, unable to find the words she wanted to express.
"Not glad to see me, Jedalla?" Tak sneered. Jed flinched at her real name and the tone Tak used, but managed a glare which told her sister she wasn't going to let this drop. Tak sighed and let out a little giggle, "I love you too!" Still Jed held her glare, strong and steady although soon it would waver, "I've been looking for you for so long, little sister," Tak said, "When I heard you were on Devastis I searched for you but you must have left by the time I found your unit, so I tried to get hold of the Tallest but if you aren't a registered Invader you could wait for years before getting a transmission through to them . . . so I befriended Zenin, the Red Tallest's grandmother and used her transmission screen to contact them. They had an interesting proposition for me and were only too happy to give me the co-ordinates of your whereabouts . . . " Tak trailed off, giving her sister a funny little look, "However, I was very surprised to hear that you are staying with no other than Invader Zim . . . "
"There are reasons beyond my control for that!" Jed protested, staring up at her sister with a mixture of strange emotions. Uneasiness, anger, joy at seeing her sister, pain, betrayal . . . both to Zim and to Tak . . .
"Yes, yes, I've heard the story of how his stupid tin can destroyed your Drill A House device. You fool, Jed. You utter fool. You should have killed him when you had him! The Tallest would have come for you!" Tak scolded her like a child, and Jed felt her blood boil. Why did she have to be so incompetent after so long, they hadn't talked for years but still she hadn't changed? Her attitude had remained unaltered despite her being defeated by the biggest "disgrace" to the Irken race, her ego remained the size of a football stadium.
"How dare you?! There was no way to contact the Tallest! I had to compromise!" Jed cried, anger fuelling her.
"You didn't have to do anything other than what you were ordered to do! You had your gun, you should have killed him and thought about the consequences later! You were always weak-minded!" Tak snapped.
"Who's the Invader here?" Jed screamed, now full of fury, "Who actually lived the dream, Tak? I did! Little me, little Jed did! So don't you patronise me because I did what you never could, Tak! My true mission was always to find you and make you an Invader again . . . I always dreamed I'd see you again, Tak, but not like this . . . not like this . . . " Jed trailed off, her voice had become weaker during her speech, and Tak was extremely surprised at the outburst.
"And what of Zim?" Tak growled menacingly, but Jed had long since drooped, her shoulders slumped and eyes on the floor, at her boots.
Jed shrugged uselessly, helplessly, "What of Zim . . . ? I don't know . . . what of him . . . it's all messed up . . . " Her pride was gone, her eyes refused to meet her sisters'. She flopped backwards, sitting on the cold hard floor she and Zim had been kissing on not so very long ago. Zim . . .
Tak nodded at her sister. She appeared to be thinking about something pretty deeply, her eyes were flitting around the room, settling on the small young Irken on the ground, appearing to be so much smaller than she herself was, even if Jed was only a couple of inches shorter than Tak. She seemed so much younger, yet less naïve and more aware of the crap around her. Tak took this in as she decided not to judge her sister too harshly.
"Fine." Was all she chose to say. "I'll see you in about four months then, kid. I'm with the Armada and they're not far from Earth, so I'd figure I'd come and help you out with your precious Invader's mission. I'll . . . supervise . . . see if you can kill him yourself, maybe then you can prove yourself to me. Bye, Jed."
At Tak's announcement of her coming to Earth, Jed's head shot up, eyes wide and disbelieving, as much so if not more as she had been when Tak's face had first appeared on the screen. It was only when Jed could no longer see Tak's face that she began to scream.
"NO! NO, NO! TAK! TAK! NO! DON'T . . . NO! NOT HERE, NOT NOW! TAK! TAK! COME BACK! TAK!" she yelled at the blank screen, and so desperate was she that she didn't even realise Zim was coming up behind her. He hadn't seen Tak herself, only heard Jed, the assassin he had kissed, the assassin he found himself so terrifyingly attracted to, screaming the name of his long- gone nemesis.
"Hello, Jed," he said from behind her, eyes livid and excited at the same time, mixed together with a nice dosage of sheer confusion and a bitter taste in his mouth called betrayal. Had she betrayed him? Or was this her plan? Jed . . . she made him so angry, yet so incredibly turned on at the same time.
Jed whipped around, jumping to her feet, her face tense with screaming and desperation, and her jaw remained open with shock. Things were just getting worse and worse for Jed, when a short while ago everything seemed so right even when she knew it would never be accepted by anyone else. But for some reason, because of him, she couldn't help how she felt . . . when she had been trained so thoroughly in the art of staying under control and keeping her cool. Emotion had had its effect on Invader Jed and left its scornful imprint, and now she didn't know what to do.
"Zim . . . " she began, but he waved her off flippantly.
"Was this the plan, Jed?" he snapped, "Was this is all the time? Tak? She's alive, isn't she? And you've signed my DEATH CERTIFICATE?! Well, Jed, you stooopid monkey, it won't work out. All this means . . . all we mean . . . is that I am no longer able to kill you. But I can't look at you. Which is why . . . which is why I'm going for a walk."
"Zim, no!" Jed cried, "I can explain! Zim - " but he was already walking away from her, "I swear . . . no . . . "
"Explaining time is not now!" Zim said, "I have to . . . clear my head. Oh . . . what I came down to tell you was that I fixed your Voot Cruiser. If you're not here when I get back, I'll know where you are. Or not are. Or something. Goodbye, Jed. It's probably for the best . . . but we'll never know."
Jed watched Zim travel up the tube until he was gone. She had never felt so angry, confused and upset in all her life.
"We'll know, Zim, I've not given up yet . . . " she murmured to the ceiling, "And I'll be here when you get back . . . I promise." And with that she sat down on the floor with her knees pulled up against her chest, staring at her gloved hands and how much trouble they had caused.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"What were you thinking, you stupid, stupid girl?!" Dib yelled at his sister, "You don't know what suicide is! You're . . . you're life's not THAT BAD! Gaz . . . Gaz listen to me!" Dib tried desperately, holding onto her shoulders, but Gaz ran out of the door quicker than he expected without saying a word, and he gaped after her before gathering his senses and grabbing his trenchcoat, hurtling out of the front door into the dark, rainy night.
Little did he know that Zim, who was running from his own demons, was also out there tonight. He was about to find out.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: WOOOOOOO! Finished! This one took me ages to write for some reason . . . hmmmm evil influences of doom! Not much comedy in this one, really. Sorry, guys. More Zim and Gaz next chapter, which is incidentally called "Feeling Sorry For Gaz". Basic synopsis is that Zim on his walk bumps in to Dib who is looking for Gaz and Zim reluctantly agrees to help find her. Again here we see Kel and Sim, the two farmers that GIR stayed with ages ago. Remember? Of course you do . . .
Anyway Gaz is in the field trying to hide. One of them finds her. Which one will it be, Zim or Dib? Finally we get more from the two rivals, yay! Please review peopleses!
Danke!
"I wanted freedom, but I'm restricted. I tried to give you up, but I'm addicted." - Time Is Running Out, Muse. (very very very very cool song of doom people! ^_^)
