Doom Witch
Author's Note: Okie dokie, peoples. Did you like the last chapter? I hope so . . . sigh . . . I wish I could tell you what happens at the end but I'm scared that you might judge me ( I like tacos! I had tacos the other night when my friend was round for dinner. And you know what ? . . . it was the first time he had had tacos! But it's okay kiddies, now he likes tacos. I like tacos! WOO! It was my birthday last Wednesday! Sing to me people! I got a new guitar! WOOOOO!
Review this one folksies. Sorry it's been a while. Please! I'm not desperate . . . honest!
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- Chapter Twenty-Five -Battling With Forks Instead of Biros -
"Right. Right. Right . . . I know what we're going to do . . . Right . . . right," Dib mused sitting on the roof of the Membrane residence, with his sister Gaz by his side, "Gaz . . . I know what to . . . ah wait it's gone again . . . I had an idea a minute ago, so we're getting closer! That's always good, right? Right?"
Almost growling, Gaz looked at her brother with as much evilness as she could muster, which was a lot, as her brother stumbled back in fear and dread of his sister's wrath, then looked back at her drawing of Bloaty the Pizza Hog. She had drawn this revolting character which was far more terrifying than Ronald McDonald could ever hope to be for as long as she could remember and nothing else appeared to take her fancy to draw. Occasionally she drew Zim, but only occasionally, when no one was looking and she was sure no one would be around for a while at least.
That wasn't really a problem, though, her father was always in the lab, and Dib was either watching Mysterious Mysteries, stalking Zim, up on the roof contemplating how to kill Zim and now Jed, or off drooling with Zita as was becoming ever more the popular choice with Dib. Not that Gaz cared, because finally Dib was doing something useful and planning a good way to take down the girl, or alien, or whatever, that stood in the way of her and Zim being as near to happy together as they could be. That was in fact Jed . . . not Zita.
They sat in silence for about a quarter of an hour, and then suddenly Dib let out a random little yell that made Gaz flinch and glower at her brother furiously. "Hey, Gaz, I got it! I really think I got it!" he exclaimed, and he looked so sure and proud of himself that she felt she just had to yield a little smile, but a very little one, you understand. That was enough to satisfy Dib, who took it as a blessing and a means of carrying on, so carry on he did.
"Well," he began, sounding very high and mighty and superior, "the way to take down Jed is simple. All we have to do . . . "
"I know what we're aiming to do, Dib. Cut to the chase before I get bored and begin to think hanging, drawing and quartering you would be slightly more amusing," she paused, looking at her brother, "but then I think you'd scream too much."
Dib opened his mouth to protest, but at a warning glance knew better and proceeded to talk about his whole idea thingy, "Okay. What we need is the element of surprise. So say we were to ambush her and . . . well, we should be armed . . . with pencils or rulers or something with corners . . . "
Gaz rolled her eyes.
"I suppose biros would do . . . but they always tend to burst, don't they? Don't you think that's really annoying? Don't'cha? Huh? Huh? Gaz? Huh? Biros?" Dib asked, perkily.
"I know something else that's really annoying . . . " growled Gaz, "so you're lucky I'm intrigued by this plan, dear brother. And I don't really think biro pens are going to take down an alien warrior with advanced technology . . . I think this calls for forks and spoons, Dib."
Dib nodded thoughtfully and looked at his sister, then looked at the table, then looked back at her with a shocked expression on his face. "Wait a minute . . . have you actually been paying attention?" he gasped, "You mean . . . you're actually BOTHERED about this???"
Gaz looked a bit uneasy, and didn't want to admit she thought Zim was worth all this, so she just shrugged and slumped off, slid down the ladder and into the house without another word. Dib looked up at the sky and took his sister's swift departure as a yes.
"Tomorrow your time's up, Invader Jed . . . "Dib whispered to himself, well, not himself, because himself was not Invader Jed, who it was he was of course speaking to, but of course she wasn't there so he had to say it to himself but he wasn't actually referring to himself. Or something, "But I happen to think forks and spoons are a bit cruel . . . but I suppose they don't really burst . . . anyway. I'm going to stop speaking to myself and go to bed now. Um. Mmyep . . . "
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The next morning, Zim and Jed left the house quite late so they had to trot downhill just to get to Hi-Skool a little faster than their short legs would normally permit them to when they were walking at a normal pace. Which took quite a while, considering Zim kicked up into the air and walked all pompous like, while Jed just walked normally and had to lag behind for Zim. She was in the mood for walking off without him, but today, for some reason, she didn't. She felt like this was the beginning of the countdown of their time together, and she didn't want it to be.
Suddenly, she grabbed Zim's hand, something she rarely did nowadays, and Zim looked at her, not sure whether he should remove his hand from hers or whether he should just enjoy the affection while it lasted. He was just contemplating this with his mighty thinking brain skills when he saw the desperation in Jed's artificial eyes, he knew that he should not reject this expression, so he didn't deny her. If anything, his grip on her hand tightened and she looked up at him.
Their gaze connected and they pushed forward into each other so they shared a kiss, the first one they had both really meant and longed for, and their hands disconnected, and Zim's arms wrapped around Jed's waist and she began to reach her arms to ring around his neck, but in the vague distance they heard a hateful bell ringing, and their longing was maybe so great that they might have ignored it and walked back to the base. Instead they pulled apart and gave each other a "later-on" look, and sprinted the rest of the short way to skool.
The day was boring and uneventful, and Jed was looking forward to getting home for a number of reasons, the main one being that she and Zim had re- found their passion and it was about time they tried it out, it had been almost a fortnight since Jed had found out about Zim and Gaz. They weren't aware that Tak had gotten an upgrade to her Voot Runner and would be there very, very shortly. They still thought they had at least a few months before she arrived. Ah . . .
With a sly look from Zim before he went off to serve his detention after skool (as a cause of calling Ms Bitters an alien from another planet, to which her eyeball had twitched excessively and there had been much hissing) with a promise of making it up to her when he got home. Jed was on her way out of the building, passing the empty classrooms, until an arm shot out of one of them and grabbed her arm.
Before she could yell in protest, Jed was bundled into the room, the door was slammed shut and she was flung onto the floor, her limbs sprawled over the rough carpet that felt more like muddy old sandpaper. Jed cried out in horror as two pairs of strong hands hoisted her up and flung her against the opposite wall. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Gaz and Dib, although she couldn't say she was really that surprised.
"Hey!" she yelled, "What the Hell . . ."
"Hell's pretty close to where you're going," Gaz snarled so horribly that even Dib flinched and Jed felt his grip on her loosen for a brief second before tightening again.
"Let me go!" she yelled, struggling furiously, her arms held so she couldn't lash out and her legs too short to reach them, effectively anyway, "I haven't done anything, let me go or I'll-"
Gaz forced her face right up so she was almost sharing Jed's breath, her teeth clenched and eyes narrowed, "Oh, I think you'll find you have done something wrong, Jed. And you're gonna pay for it now."
She and Dib let go of her and Jed began to sidestep for the door but Gaz blocked her way, brandishing a fork. Jed looked to Dib, who held a spoon firmly in his right hand. Jed blinked in disbelief and laughed aloud. Dib looked a bit disheartened by this but Gaz's expression remained firm, but Jed looked extremely strengthened by the fact that she wasn't up against much and used all her power to throw the two humans off her arms.
Dib and Gaz were only flung back a couple of paces, but it was enough for Jed to drop to her feet and regain her balance and stature so when the humans came in for another attack her wily Irken muscles were too fast for them and used her mind to order her gun out of her Pak and into her hand (Irkens are generally very fast, remember how quickly Zim corrupted the security system in "FBI Warning of Doom"), which made Dib stagger back in shock, a tiny cry of horror escaping his lips, while Gaz stopped dead in her tracks and simply glared past the gun right into Jed's furious fake blue eyes.
They stood staring at each other, hatred linking them together, both equally too proud to be the first to break eye contact, so they stood staring each other down until Jed decided to press the button on the side which took off one of the safeties on her gun and Dib cried out.
"Hey!" he yelled, and Jed held the gun steady, looking at him with the corner of her eye as well as narrowing them, but flicking her eyes back to face Gaz (at whom the gun was pointed directly at) every few seconds. She looked at Dib as if she had only just remembered he was there and didn't seem very interested on what he had to say, she was so angry. "Come on, Jed . . . let her go, yeah? I mean . . . we didn't mean . . . we weren't going to hurt you or anything . . . "
Jed turned away from him, disinterested. She whipped another gun out from her Pak and held it in her other hand, switching off the first safety on that too and pointing it at Dib. "Oh yes we were going to hurt you . . . " Gaz snarled, her voice so low Jed had to almost squint to hear her, "We were going to kill you, and then I would be left with Zim, but it's okay, it'll happen sooner or later . . . "
Jed growled and released the second safety, only on the gun pointed at Gaz though, until Dib ran forward saying "No!" and Jed flicked the switch which lit up two of the three little red lights on the side of each gun. The third would light up when she pulled the trigger and ended the life of whomever she got bored of first. She was practically ignoring Dib, her entire concentration on Gaz, but aware that Dib was there. It was only now that Jed stepped away from the wall, turned, and ordered the two humans against it so she could get an easier shot instead of having to spread her arms to her sides to keep the guns on them both.
Gaz and Dib stood side by side, Gaz on the right, Dib on the left. Once again Dib was just the spare in a hostage situation, which normally seemed to involve this God-forsaken Irken.
Jed smirked at Gaz and cocked her head to the right slightly, "Third time lucky," she said quietly, at almost a whisper, and Gaz's eyes narrowed even more than they already were.
"If you're relying on luck," Gaz said, "then I'd say there isn't much chance of you pulling that trigger."
Jed only smiled wider. Her grip on the small lever tucked under the gun tightened, "Is that so? Well I hold all of your human cards, Gaz. It was nice competing with you, but I think it's time for you to . . . ah . . . step aside, as it were."
Jed could hear her blood pumping in her head, her pulse racing, thinking of how Gaz had kissed Zim, her Zim, wasting the time, wasting his taste . . . she hated her and she hated Zim's infatuation in her. She was a mere human, a scary human that should be left to her own isolated self. Well, now Gaz would be isolated in her grave. Smiling to herself, Jed raised the gun to point at her rival, not really caring whether someone heard the light click of the laser beam that would make Gaz collapse to the ground.
Jed felt the lever give way, felt Gaz's cold, empty stare as all her hope faded, heard Dib's desperate yell of "NO!" (she hadn't decided whether to kill him or not, she supposed she would but wondered if maybe Zim would prefer to do that). Zim . . . this was all for Zim, goodbye Gaz, I'll give him a big kiss for you . . .
"JED!" a loud voice came from behind Jed, and she whipped around to her left, leaving the gun on Gaz but Dib was able to scramble out of her aim and dived for Jed, but a couple of spider legs shot out of her Pak and tripped him up so he went sprawling into a set of desks. Jed kept her aim focused tight on Gaz, but watched Zim approach her with growing dread as to what he was going to do or say.
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**FIVE MINUTES EARLIER**
Detention was boring, Zim realised. Ms Bitters looked almost as bored as him, and the other people in detention were irritating the Irken, so of course he threw a piece of human chalk at one of the children.
Ms Bitters didn't appreciate that, though, and made a hissing noise, before saying, "Zim! Stop throwing chalk at Michael at once!" When Zim didn't stop throwing chalk at Michael, she hissed and rattled even more and even growled before whipping out of her chair and up to Zim's so fast he couldn't follow her movements.
He saluted her when she reached his desk, "Ms Bitters, sir!" he barked, "A fine morning to you and all the worm babies!"
"Zim!" Ms Bitters snapped, "Firstly, it is not a morning, secondly, even if it were then it isn't fine, and thirdly there are no pets to be brought into class," she paused for effect, and also so she could hiss and rattle at Zim a bit more, "and worms count as pets! Now why are you throwing chalk at Michael? He's getting traumatised HORRIBLY!"
"And there was me thinking he was enjoying getting your filthy blackboard scribing implement . . . " Zim said sadly, although he wasn't really sad. He was contemplating telling her she had failed to add a "fourthly" to her list of complaints of his speech beforehand, stating that she wasn't in fact a "sir" but a "ma'am" or even a "madam" or a "miss". But no . . . why did she not deny this fact? Was it possible that . . . ?
"ZIM!" Ms Bitters brought him crashing back down to the filthy planet he was busy infiltrating, "I'm fed up of your stench. Take your miserable self through to the room three doors down. It's the only other one in the skool that's empty where you won't annoy anyone with your HORRIBLLLE odour!"
Zim stood up and saluted again, throwing a final piece of chalk at Michael, who screamed out loud and ran right up the aisle in the classroom right into the wall, which he inevitably crashed into the wall, and Zim left the class of concerned detention students (which included Dib's girlfriend Zita, who was in for passing too many love notes back to Dib).
Zim stormed down the hallway, kicking his feet up in front of him importantly and turned into the classroom he was told to go to. Ms Bitters had not been entirely truthful, the room was in fact not empty but had Dib, Gaz and . . . Jed, holding an Irken laser gun in each hand. Zim took a few seconds to absorb the situation before jumping into the room, spreading his legs apart and yelling "JED!" which made her turn.
He saw Dib try to attack her but she was too fast for him. She still had a gun on Gaz but was looking at Zim from the corner of her eye and he wasn't sure if she was furious or shocked, possibly both. Very possibly both.
"Zim!" she cried, "Zim . . . "
Zim ran up to the wall and stood beside Gaz. Jed's jaw almost dropped but she managed to compose herself into a steady frown, "What's this in aid of?" she asked quietly, keeping her tone down, not really worrying whether Dib had gone or was about to dive for her again. Zim stepped away from the wall and right up to Jed's side.
"It's not in aid of anything," he said, equally as quietly, "just put the gun down."
"What?" Jed hissed, then shook her head, "No. No. Not this time, Zim. Not this time, I'm not going to . . . " Her grip tightened on the trigger again and Zim grabbed her wrist. She stared at him. "Let go . . . " she said huskily, "She's just a human."
"Exactly." Zim said, "Come on, let's go. It doesn't matter. We've got to get some things done in the base tonight if we're going to that party tomorrow night, we won't have time to make any repairs or upgrades tomorrow. Let's go now. Worry later. Come on."
Jed shook her head at first, but a spider leg came out, took the guns back in, switching the safeties back on. She nodded reluctantly, cast another dirty look at Jed, and let Zim drag her away by the hand until she heard Gaz say under her breath, "So much for your luck, then," which made Jed freeze, but Zim urged her on.
Gaz left the room soon afterwards, not even looking at her brother, sprawled semi-conscious against the desk, dazed at the whole situation.
He jumped up to see Zita in the doorway looking annoyed. Funnily enough, the party being held at the skool was the first thing that came to mind, "Zita, we don't have to go to the party tomorrow, do we?"
Zita tutted and walked right up to Dib, pulling him onto his feet, "Dib," she said, ever so preppily, "if you like -ugh- if you like, don't take me to this ultra-cool party, then it's like, ugh, over! I have to keep up - like - an appearance, or something, and I'll do it with you or not, Dib! Ohmigod, how can you be so like, selfish?"
Dib nodded, "Okay, okay. Sorry. I just . . . it's been a hard day." Dib may have argued, but he was so very out of it that he didn't bother. He didn't really want to go to the same party Zim and Jed were going to, but he would do just about anything for Zita. They left the Skool, holding hands, watching Gaz in the distance barely more than a silhouette, all black, all small, all alone.
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A/N: Hey! This was a much shorter chapter, but it was really just a fill in. The next one is gonna be quite a biggie, in fact it's a big biggie so I'm not gonna leave a synopsis except that it's set at a party, and Gaz goes with Torque Smacky to try and make Zim jealous. That's all I'm saying.
Sorry it's been so long folks!
Review!
"As I leave will you be someone to say goodbye? As I leave will you be someone to wipe your eye? My foot is out the door, and you can't stop me now." - The Last Song, All American Rejects
Author's Note: Okie dokie, peoples. Did you like the last chapter? I hope so . . . sigh . . . I wish I could tell you what happens at the end but I'm scared that you might judge me ( I like tacos! I had tacos the other night when my friend was round for dinner. And you know what ? . . . it was the first time he had had tacos! But it's okay kiddies, now he likes tacos. I like tacos! WOO! It was my birthday last Wednesday! Sing to me people! I got a new guitar! WOOOOO!
Review this one folksies. Sorry it's been a while. Please! I'm not desperate . . . honest!
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- Chapter Twenty-Five -Battling With Forks Instead of Biros -
"Right. Right. Right . . . I know what we're going to do . . . Right . . . right," Dib mused sitting on the roof of the Membrane residence, with his sister Gaz by his side, "Gaz . . . I know what to . . . ah wait it's gone again . . . I had an idea a minute ago, so we're getting closer! That's always good, right? Right?"
Almost growling, Gaz looked at her brother with as much evilness as she could muster, which was a lot, as her brother stumbled back in fear and dread of his sister's wrath, then looked back at her drawing of Bloaty the Pizza Hog. She had drawn this revolting character which was far more terrifying than Ronald McDonald could ever hope to be for as long as she could remember and nothing else appeared to take her fancy to draw. Occasionally she drew Zim, but only occasionally, when no one was looking and she was sure no one would be around for a while at least.
That wasn't really a problem, though, her father was always in the lab, and Dib was either watching Mysterious Mysteries, stalking Zim, up on the roof contemplating how to kill Zim and now Jed, or off drooling with Zita as was becoming ever more the popular choice with Dib. Not that Gaz cared, because finally Dib was doing something useful and planning a good way to take down the girl, or alien, or whatever, that stood in the way of her and Zim being as near to happy together as they could be. That was in fact Jed . . . not Zita.
They sat in silence for about a quarter of an hour, and then suddenly Dib let out a random little yell that made Gaz flinch and glower at her brother furiously. "Hey, Gaz, I got it! I really think I got it!" he exclaimed, and he looked so sure and proud of himself that she felt she just had to yield a little smile, but a very little one, you understand. That was enough to satisfy Dib, who took it as a blessing and a means of carrying on, so carry on he did.
"Well," he began, sounding very high and mighty and superior, "the way to take down Jed is simple. All we have to do . . . "
"I know what we're aiming to do, Dib. Cut to the chase before I get bored and begin to think hanging, drawing and quartering you would be slightly more amusing," she paused, looking at her brother, "but then I think you'd scream too much."
Dib opened his mouth to protest, but at a warning glance knew better and proceeded to talk about his whole idea thingy, "Okay. What we need is the element of surprise. So say we were to ambush her and . . . well, we should be armed . . . with pencils or rulers or something with corners . . . "
Gaz rolled her eyes.
"I suppose biros would do . . . but they always tend to burst, don't they? Don't you think that's really annoying? Don't'cha? Huh? Huh? Gaz? Huh? Biros?" Dib asked, perkily.
"I know something else that's really annoying . . . " growled Gaz, "so you're lucky I'm intrigued by this plan, dear brother. And I don't really think biro pens are going to take down an alien warrior with advanced technology . . . I think this calls for forks and spoons, Dib."
Dib nodded thoughtfully and looked at his sister, then looked at the table, then looked back at her with a shocked expression on his face. "Wait a minute . . . have you actually been paying attention?" he gasped, "You mean . . . you're actually BOTHERED about this???"
Gaz looked a bit uneasy, and didn't want to admit she thought Zim was worth all this, so she just shrugged and slumped off, slid down the ladder and into the house without another word. Dib looked up at the sky and took his sister's swift departure as a yes.
"Tomorrow your time's up, Invader Jed . . . "Dib whispered to himself, well, not himself, because himself was not Invader Jed, who it was he was of course speaking to, but of course she wasn't there so he had to say it to himself but he wasn't actually referring to himself. Or something, "But I happen to think forks and spoons are a bit cruel . . . but I suppose they don't really burst . . . anyway. I'm going to stop speaking to myself and go to bed now. Um. Mmyep . . . "
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The next morning, Zim and Jed left the house quite late so they had to trot downhill just to get to Hi-Skool a little faster than their short legs would normally permit them to when they were walking at a normal pace. Which took quite a while, considering Zim kicked up into the air and walked all pompous like, while Jed just walked normally and had to lag behind for Zim. She was in the mood for walking off without him, but today, for some reason, she didn't. She felt like this was the beginning of the countdown of their time together, and she didn't want it to be.
Suddenly, she grabbed Zim's hand, something she rarely did nowadays, and Zim looked at her, not sure whether he should remove his hand from hers or whether he should just enjoy the affection while it lasted. He was just contemplating this with his mighty thinking brain skills when he saw the desperation in Jed's artificial eyes, he knew that he should not reject this expression, so he didn't deny her. If anything, his grip on her hand tightened and she looked up at him.
Their gaze connected and they pushed forward into each other so they shared a kiss, the first one they had both really meant and longed for, and their hands disconnected, and Zim's arms wrapped around Jed's waist and she began to reach her arms to ring around his neck, but in the vague distance they heard a hateful bell ringing, and their longing was maybe so great that they might have ignored it and walked back to the base. Instead they pulled apart and gave each other a "later-on" look, and sprinted the rest of the short way to skool.
The day was boring and uneventful, and Jed was looking forward to getting home for a number of reasons, the main one being that she and Zim had re- found their passion and it was about time they tried it out, it had been almost a fortnight since Jed had found out about Zim and Gaz. They weren't aware that Tak had gotten an upgrade to her Voot Runner and would be there very, very shortly. They still thought they had at least a few months before she arrived. Ah . . .
With a sly look from Zim before he went off to serve his detention after skool (as a cause of calling Ms Bitters an alien from another planet, to which her eyeball had twitched excessively and there had been much hissing) with a promise of making it up to her when he got home. Jed was on her way out of the building, passing the empty classrooms, until an arm shot out of one of them and grabbed her arm.
Before she could yell in protest, Jed was bundled into the room, the door was slammed shut and she was flung onto the floor, her limbs sprawled over the rough carpet that felt more like muddy old sandpaper. Jed cried out in horror as two pairs of strong hands hoisted her up and flung her against the opposite wall. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Gaz and Dib, although she couldn't say she was really that surprised.
"Hey!" she yelled, "What the Hell . . ."
"Hell's pretty close to where you're going," Gaz snarled so horribly that even Dib flinched and Jed felt his grip on her loosen for a brief second before tightening again.
"Let me go!" she yelled, struggling furiously, her arms held so she couldn't lash out and her legs too short to reach them, effectively anyway, "I haven't done anything, let me go or I'll-"
Gaz forced her face right up so she was almost sharing Jed's breath, her teeth clenched and eyes narrowed, "Oh, I think you'll find you have done something wrong, Jed. And you're gonna pay for it now."
She and Dib let go of her and Jed began to sidestep for the door but Gaz blocked her way, brandishing a fork. Jed looked to Dib, who held a spoon firmly in his right hand. Jed blinked in disbelief and laughed aloud. Dib looked a bit disheartened by this but Gaz's expression remained firm, but Jed looked extremely strengthened by the fact that she wasn't up against much and used all her power to throw the two humans off her arms.
Dib and Gaz were only flung back a couple of paces, but it was enough for Jed to drop to her feet and regain her balance and stature so when the humans came in for another attack her wily Irken muscles were too fast for them and used her mind to order her gun out of her Pak and into her hand (Irkens are generally very fast, remember how quickly Zim corrupted the security system in "FBI Warning of Doom"), which made Dib stagger back in shock, a tiny cry of horror escaping his lips, while Gaz stopped dead in her tracks and simply glared past the gun right into Jed's furious fake blue eyes.
They stood staring at each other, hatred linking them together, both equally too proud to be the first to break eye contact, so they stood staring each other down until Jed decided to press the button on the side which took off one of the safeties on her gun and Dib cried out.
"Hey!" he yelled, and Jed held the gun steady, looking at him with the corner of her eye as well as narrowing them, but flicking her eyes back to face Gaz (at whom the gun was pointed directly at) every few seconds. She looked at Dib as if she had only just remembered he was there and didn't seem very interested on what he had to say, she was so angry. "Come on, Jed . . . let her go, yeah? I mean . . . we didn't mean . . . we weren't going to hurt you or anything . . . "
Jed turned away from him, disinterested. She whipped another gun out from her Pak and held it in her other hand, switching off the first safety on that too and pointing it at Dib. "Oh yes we were going to hurt you . . . " Gaz snarled, her voice so low Jed had to almost squint to hear her, "We were going to kill you, and then I would be left with Zim, but it's okay, it'll happen sooner or later . . . "
Jed growled and released the second safety, only on the gun pointed at Gaz though, until Dib ran forward saying "No!" and Jed flicked the switch which lit up two of the three little red lights on the side of each gun. The third would light up when she pulled the trigger and ended the life of whomever she got bored of first. She was practically ignoring Dib, her entire concentration on Gaz, but aware that Dib was there. It was only now that Jed stepped away from the wall, turned, and ordered the two humans against it so she could get an easier shot instead of having to spread her arms to her sides to keep the guns on them both.
Gaz and Dib stood side by side, Gaz on the right, Dib on the left. Once again Dib was just the spare in a hostage situation, which normally seemed to involve this God-forsaken Irken.
Jed smirked at Gaz and cocked her head to the right slightly, "Third time lucky," she said quietly, at almost a whisper, and Gaz's eyes narrowed even more than they already were.
"If you're relying on luck," Gaz said, "then I'd say there isn't much chance of you pulling that trigger."
Jed only smiled wider. Her grip on the small lever tucked under the gun tightened, "Is that so? Well I hold all of your human cards, Gaz. It was nice competing with you, but I think it's time for you to . . . ah . . . step aside, as it were."
Jed could hear her blood pumping in her head, her pulse racing, thinking of how Gaz had kissed Zim, her Zim, wasting the time, wasting his taste . . . she hated her and she hated Zim's infatuation in her. She was a mere human, a scary human that should be left to her own isolated self. Well, now Gaz would be isolated in her grave. Smiling to herself, Jed raised the gun to point at her rival, not really caring whether someone heard the light click of the laser beam that would make Gaz collapse to the ground.
Jed felt the lever give way, felt Gaz's cold, empty stare as all her hope faded, heard Dib's desperate yell of "NO!" (she hadn't decided whether to kill him or not, she supposed she would but wondered if maybe Zim would prefer to do that). Zim . . . this was all for Zim, goodbye Gaz, I'll give him a big kiss for you . . .
"JED!" a loud voice came from behind Jed, and she whipped around to her left, leaving the gun on Gaz but Dib was able to scramble out of her aim and dived for Jed, but a couple of spider legs shot out of her Pak and tripped him up so he went sprawling into a set of desks. Jed kept her aim focused tight on Gaz, but watched Zim approach her with growing dread as to what he was going to do or say.
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**FIVE MINUTES EARLIER**
Detention was boring, Zim realised. Ms Bitters looked almost as bored as him, and the other people in detention were irritating the Irken, so of course he threw a piece of human chalk at one of the children.
Ms Bitters didn't appreciate that, though, and made a hissing noise, before saying, "Zim! Stop throwing chalk at Michael at once!" When Zim didn't stop throwing chalk at Michael, she hissed and rattled even more and even growled before whipping out of her chair and up to Zim's so fast he couldn't follow her movements.
He saluted her when she reached his desk, "Ms Bitters, sir!" he barked, "A fine morning to you and all the worm babies!"
"Zim!" Ms Bitters snapped, "Firstly, it is not a morning, secondly, even if it were then it isn't fine, and thirdly there are no pets to be brought into class," she paused for effect, and also so she could hiss and rattle at Zim a bit more, "and worms count as pets! Now why are you throwing chalk at Michael? He's getting traumatised HORRIBLY!"
"And there was me thinking he was enjoying getting your filthy blackboard scribing implement . . . " Zim said sadly, although he wasn't really sad. He was contemplating telling her she had failed to add a "fourthly" to her list of complaints of his speech beforehand, stating that she wasn't in fact a "sir" but a "ma'am" or even a "madam" or a "miss". But no . . . why did she not deny this fact? Was it possible that . . . ?
"ZIM!" Ms Bitters brought him crashing back down to the filthy planet he was busy infiltrating, "I'm fed up of your stench. Take your miserable self through to the room three doors down. It's the only other one in the skool that's empty where you won't annoy anyone with your HORRIBLLLE odour!"
Zim stood up and saluted again, throwing a final piece of chalk at Michael, who screamed out loud and ran right up the aisle in the classroom right into the wall, which he inevitably crashed into the wall, and Zim left the class of concerned detention students (which included Dib's girlfriend Zita, who was in for passing too many love notes back to Dib).
Zim stormed down the hallway, kicking his feet up in front of him importantly and turned into the classroom he was told to go to. Ms Bitters had not been entirely truthful, the room was in fact not empty but had Dib, Gaz and . . . Jed, holding an Irken laser gun in each hand. Zim took a few seconds to absorb the situation before jumping into the room, spreading his legs apart and yelling "JED!" which made her turn.
He saw Dib try to attack her but she was too fast for him. She still had a gun on Gaz but was looking at Zim from the corner of her eye and he wasn't sure if she was furious or shocked, possibly both. Very possibly both.
"Zim!" she cried, "Zim . . . "
Zim ran up to the wall and stood beside Gaz. Jed's jaw almost dropped but she managed to compose herself into a steady frown, "What's this in aid of?" she asked quietly, keeping her tone down, not really worrying whether Dib had gone or was about to dive for her again. Zim stepped away from the wall and right up to Jed's side.
"It's not in aid of anything," he said, equally as quietly, "just put the gun down."
"What?" Jed hissed, then shook her head, "No. No. Not this time, Zim. Not this time, I'm not going to . . . " Her grip tightened on the trigger again and Zim grabbed her wrist. She stared at him. "Let go . . . " she said huskily, "She's just a human."
"Exactly." Zim said, "Come on, let's go. It doesn't matter. We've got to get some things done in the base tonight if we're going to that party tomorrow night, we won't have time to make any repairs or upgrades tomorrow. Let's go now. Worry later. Come on."
Jed shook her head at first, but a spider leg came out, took the guns back in, switching the safeties back on. She nodded reluctantly, cast another dirty look at Jed, and let Zim drag her away by the hand until she heard Gaz say under her breath, "So much for your luck, then," which made Jed freeze, but Zim urged her on.
Gaz left the room soon afterwards, not even looking at her brother, sprawled semi-conscious against the desk, dazed at the whole situation.
He jumped up to see Zita in the doorway looking annoyed. Funnily enough, the party being held at the skool was the first thing that came to mind, "Zita, we don't have to go to the party tomorrow, do we?"
Zita tutted and walked right up to Dib, pulling him onto his feet, "Dib," she said, ever so preppily, "if you like -ugh- if you like, don't take me to this ultra-cool party, then it's like, ugh, over! I have to keep up - like - an appearance, or something, and I'll do it with you or not, Dib! Ohmigod, how can you be so like, selfish?"
Dib nodded, "Okay, okay. Sorry. I just . . . it's been a hard day." Dib may have argued, but he was so very out of it that he didn't bother. He didn't really want to go to the same party Zim and Jed were going to, but he would do just about anything for Zita. They left the Skool, holding hands, watching Gaz in the distance barely more than a silhouette, all black, all small, all alone.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: Hey! This was a much shorter chapter, but it was really just a fill in. The next one is gonna be quite a biggie, in fact it's a big biggie so I'm not gonna leave a synopsis except that it's set at a party, and Gaz goes with Torque Smacky to try and make Zim jealous. That's all I'm saying.
Sorry it's been so long folks!
Review!
"As I leave will you be someone to say goodbye? As I leave will you be someone to wipe your eye? My foot is out the door, and you can't stop me now." - The Last Song, All American Rejects
