I have absolutely no valid excuse for why it's taken my so long to update this, and I apologize for it. The only reason I can offer why is that I've either been abhorrently busy these past few…um…months, or that I've been abysmally lazy. I hope that what few readers I have out there will forgive me for this and continue to read anyway. x.X Thanks.
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Slowly, I came awake, and slowly, I regretted it. My head was pounding, and I was having a hard time bringing anything into focus. With me, and most other Irkens, that was a sure sign of an overdose of tranquilizer…damn our fast metabolisms. I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and opened them again.
There was another good thing about our fast metabolisms; they allow any poisons in our systems to filter out quickly. The open chamber we were in was very familiar to me: the Tallests' reception chamber, which also housed their very large set of teleporters. The view was a bit distorted seeing as I was seeing it through a tempered glass tube that was barely big enough to hold my slumped form. A pair of elaborate shackles held my wrists tight in front of me, and had they actually fastened around my wrists as opposed to the wrist guards I still wore, I'm sure there wouldn't have been feeling. There certainly wasn't any in my feet, and it was no coincidence that there were similar shackles securing those too.
A quick shake of my head to clear my vision, and I found Dib, in the center of a cluster of Irkens, all on the shortish side and all working busily at something. He was still out, and showed no signs of coming too any time soon. One of them came away with a rather large syringe of that odd red blood that circulated in human veins, though how, exactly, he got it through the tube was unclear, unlike the look of disgust on his face, which was perfectly clear. I had worn a similar expression the first time I saw human blood spilled.
"Now we need samples from the other one," one of them said, speaking in Irken. My native tongue was fast-paced, hard enough to keep up with when you understood it. I was a bit out of practice in speaking it, but I managed to decode the statement in time to press away from the window that opened in the glass, to avoid the new syringe they poked in at me. Some little instinct in the back of my head told me that as soon as they sucked some of that purple-green blood out of me and saw how not red it was, I was in trouble.
"Hurry up and stick that thing, will you, Selkhar?"
"It keeps moving! It's a little hard."
It keeps moving—yeah, I'll show them it keeps moving. I'd have never thought I could writhe quite that much in such a restrained space, but I managed to snap at least eighteen syringe tips before they gave up.
"This one's going to be interesting to watch," one of them remarked snidely as he pulled away. I couldn't help but smirk at my success—for now, I was safe. Now all I had to do was stay awake and not let them near me for…forever. Aw shit.
A sudden silence fell across the room, sweeping in an almost palpable wave. I looked up—and time seemed to stop.
They should have been walking. Their entrance would have been a lot more dramatic if they had been, I can tell you that. It was like a dam burst in my head, seeing the two of them again, as all those carefully repressed memories came ripping back into conscious thought. Red and Purple. No longer could The Tallest be merged into one entity in my mind. No longer could I hide away the feelings and emotions they evoked in me, ignore them and pretend they didn't exist. Seeing those two alive and apparently well was like being flashed back in time, to the day I left this hypocritical life behind.
I flicked my gaze over to Dib, who was awake and staring, before looking back at them. They were examining the pair of us from a bit of a distance, as if afraid to come closer.
"Something's odd about that one," Red said, eyeing me in my prison. "It's familiar, in some way."
"What are you talking about?" Purple demanded, staring incredulously at his double. "It's just a human! How can it be familiar?"
"Well, look at it!" Red exclaimed, gesturing through the window out at me. "The poise, the posture…that smirk! Doesn't it look familiar to you at all?"
Oh good Lord, did I still have that expression on my face? It soon fell after that remark, that's for sure.
"Well, now that you mention it…no. No it doesn't," Purple declared.
"AGH! You're no fun!" Red said slowly.
"Fun? This isn't about fun! This is about determining if that Earth place we sent Zim is really worth trying to take over or not!"
"See? What did I say? No fun at all."
Yeah, no fun at all. I could definitely agree with that one. I drew my legs up to my chest and looped my arms about my knees, staring out distrustfully at them. Red scrutinized me closely for a moment more before turning away, eyeing the nearest of the scientists.
"So. Did you get the samples from the subjects?" he asked, arms crossed.
"Er, well…not really yet, sir," the magenta-eyed female apologized quickly. "The female was a bit…twitchy. We couldn't get close enough to stick her."
"What? It shouldn't have been that hard!!"
The scientist cringed. "I'm sorry sir, truly I am. But…it wiggled!" Disbelief was written across Red's face. "I know, I know—the airlock?"
"No, no, not you," Purple interrupted. "Who was the one with the needle?" The scientist pointed to one of the others. "That guy goes out the airlock." I had to carefully school my expression to remain distrustful instead of disgusted as two of the burly Imperial Guards dragged the poor red-eye pointed out to the nearest airlock and chucked him out. I looked away, locking eyes with Dib now that there weren't any intervening Irkens between us. He looked like he was going to be sick, and I must admit I felt the same way. I squinted my eyes shut and leaned against the glass of the tube.
"Get samples from the other," I heard Red command sternly. "Run the standard battery of tests, and contact us when they're done." A chorus of salutes and salutations answered that, and I assume They left, because not a few moments later, the cloud of scientists clustered around our tubes and began to tug them away.
At least they had the decency to house us together. A pair of chambers, side-by-side and constructed of a clear plastic, became our new homes, each complete with a bed and a not-so-privy privy. I tumbled head-over-heels as they dumped me into mine, and was able to boast that I hadn't yet been stuck with one of their syringes. Dib looked rather forlorn, and I decided to take it upon myself to cheer him up…and swiftly came to the conclusion that I had no idea how to. "I'd ask what's wrong, but I already know the answer," I said, sitting down on the bed and leaning against the partition between us.
"Kind of hard not to," he remarked bitterly.
"Oh, buck up, bucko," I said. "Think about it. If there are two people on Earth with the ability to get away from an alien command ship, it's us." Dib sat back, staring at me, before beginning to laugh. It wasn't a laugh of relief, or belief, or happiness. It was a bitter thing, and he was shaking his head at me.
"Don't delude yourself, my friend. Don't delude yourself."
I was taken aback. This was a rather abrupt change in my friend, but everyone reacts differently to times of hardship, I suppose, and for a guy like Dib, this was a time of hardship comparable only to the invasion of Earth. I drew my knees up to my chest again and sighed. Dib remained silent, and I was at a loss of things to say. Unable to distract myself by chattering with him, my mind turned down its own morbid path.
"Uh…Alex?"
"Mmmmm?"
"We gonna die here?"
Hell yes, you moron. "I—I don't know. I hope not."
"Okay."
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So there it is. That chapter. Um…not much to say.
MetaChi: ZF was disguised…um…but she…um…crud. That's just an oversight on my part. Let's just say Zim doesn't know she's her yet, 'kay? . You know, I don't know if they did or not. Probably, though. Probably. Yeah, they claim the dog theory all the time when dealing with beasties like the Chupa…silly nonbelievers, all of them! O.O
LunaLovegood61: Hey, many thanks, Luna-Kat. . I'm glad to hear that, because it means I have some hope of creating fiction that works outside of fandoms. Woohoo!
Chibiheartdragon: Y'know what? I think so too. Here's some more of the story—hopefully you think this is as great as the rest of it!
And now, I have a special surprise for those of you out there: another chapter! Yep, as an apology for taking SO long to write this, I'm posting two at once! . So read on, and stuffs!