Okay, you wanted the next one, so here it is.. I wrote this this afternoon while I had some peace.. yess.. peace is good. I have to go back to work tomorrow, which may mean less updates again, but I hope not. I may work on it lots after work, provided the computer cooperates. Bah! Inferior machine! Anyway, I hope that you like it.. and sorry for Zim's slight out of character-ness and stuff in the last chapter.. I'm having a little trouble with Zim, mostly because I want him to care.. and I'm having trouble making Dib depressed.. heh heh.. I'm still trying to decide if I want this to be ZADR or not, because I know that a few of those who are reading it may not be fans of ZADR and that a few of you are... hmmm.. I'm torn. I don't want to chase anyone away.. heh heh.. My boyfriend says that I should flip a coin, because he doesn't mind either way. Should I leave their romancy fate up to a coin? My sister is making cake! Whoo!
Chapter 8 - I hate needles.. I hate needles...
"Your Great Uncle who?" Dib asked his nemesis as he tried to look over his shoulder at the small, handheld monitor-thing. Not like he could read it anyway, and something weird was going on with his eyes. He couldn't focus on the screen.
"Nevermind that, you foolish monkey-child," Zim waved him away and marched down the hallway to gain access to the medical room. Dib followed him still, wanting answers.
"Come on, Zim.. who was that, really? Is it one of your horrible monarchs or something that sent you here to destroy the planet? And if that's true, then why is he helping you save me?" Zim said nothing. In fact, he was getting tired of the Dib's incessant questioning... babbling.. "Well?" Dib asked again after waiting a few moments for the Irken to answer.
"Silence," Zim commanded, summoning the monitor in the room from it's spot on the ceiling again. Dib rolled his eyes.
"I want to know, Zim."
"But I am not willing to tell you, Dib-monkey. Now, go... play in the traffic or something while I try to figure this out."
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. You sealed off the rest of your base, remember?" Dib shook his head at the sad little Invader before him. Zim sighed in annoyance.
"It is an expression Dib. Your filthy Earth-parents never told you to play in the traffic? They really should have. Maybe it would make my life easier." He smirked at the boy and waved him away once more as he brought the directions to make the serum up on the larger screen. "Okay.. I'm going to need.. hmm.." He walked out the door and left Dib to stare at the monitor. Dib, not wanting to be left alone, floated down the hall after Zim. He was eager to know what his plan was. So many questions were filling his brain, ones that he may not ever know the answer to.
Zim unlocked the elevator and stepped inside, Dib tried to follow him but Zim glared and pushed him and his hover disk out the door. "Ohhh no," he said. "You are not getting onto the storage level again. I don't need you getting into more stupid trouble than you already are." Dib tried to protest, but Zim had already ordered the computer to shut the door and was gone in an instant.
Dib glowered at the now closed doors, then moved off down the hall. At least he could use this time to explore what Zim had given him free access to. He touched that button in the wall where Zim had gotten his message from Purple previously. The computer console appeared again. He tried to remember what buttons the alien had pressed to get into his messages, but he couldn't. He should have paid more attention. He tried random combinations, and eventually what looked like a username and password screen came up. Dib shook his head.
"User name?" The computer asked aloud.
"I don't have one." Dib admitted.
"Sorry," the computer said, and promptly shut itself down.
"Oh, come on.. just one message?" Dib looked up at the ceiling, asking the base itself.
"No. Master Zim has blocked access from all computer terminals to anyone that does not have a user name and password. You are out of luck, Dib-monkey," the computer said in the same monotone as before. Dib raised one of his eyebrows, Zim had even programmed his computers to insult him.
Zim rooted around in a large box inside a storage room full of machinery, searching... "It has to be in here somewhere.." He muttered to himself, throwing random objects into another box. "Hmmmm... here it is!" He announced this loudly to no one, being alone on that floor. He wondered vaguely what the Dib was up to, but didn't really care because Dib was no danger to him where he was. He held up a small machine with several little arm-like appendages, each ending in a horrible looking needle.
He then picked up the small screen that he had carried with him, checking to see what else he would need. "Okay," he went back to muttering. "More Irken plasma.. that's easy enough.. what? Fresh?" Zim had been hoping to get some from storage, he didn't like pain. "Damn it!" He cursed loudly, then continued reading down the list.. "Blood from the infected species?! Disgusting!!!!" His stomach lurched at the thought of having to touch Dib again, let alone take his filthy Earth-blood. It made him quite queasy.
He continued reading nonetheless, there was a long list of chemicals, and luckily he had all of these in storage as well.. so it was fairly simple sounding... the only troubling part was that the serum would take about 30 hours before it would be ready. He blanched again upon reading this.. that would be cutting it close.. so close.. Apparently the Irkens had been trying to develop this for a long time before it actually worked on the lizard-monsters.
"Horrible.." he murmured, then filled the little machine with new syringes and grabbed another bag full of them just in case they were needed, then headed to the room where he kept the chemicals. Halfway there, all of the lights on the floor went out, leaving him in pitch-black darkness.
"Emergency shutdown sequence initiated," the computer announced, then became as silent as the darkness that surrounded him.
"GIR!!!!" Zim shouted at the top of his lungs, his fist clenching around the bag and the machine that he carried, his body trembling. He soon remembered that GIR was not home, and fumed even more. "DIB!!!!"
"Shit." Dib said blankly as he stared at the darkened control panel. He didn't mean to do that.. he had just been trying to get into Zim's messages again. "I must have pressed the wrong button or.. something." It was hopeless to try and see in the darkness, especially when you're underground.
He sighed audibly, wondering how he could get it to come back on. He listened to see if he could hear any signs of Zim, he had heard him shouting from somewhere far above him, but heard nothing else. He laughed softly, Zim might just decide to kill him now out of pure irritation. The hover disk had descended to the floor as the power went out, so he was pretty much stuck there.. alone in the deep darkness.
Not even a light flashed in the gloom, it was like being in a cave. If his vision was dimming more, he couldn't tell. He wished that he had remembered to bring a flashlight or something, but he hadn't been expecting this.
Zim was much more prepared for this than he was.. seeing as how he lived with GIR, and GIR was always breaking something. He pressed a button on his PAK, and his spider-legs jutted out of it. He soon realized that his antennae were not picking up on anything in the darkness and then remembered that he was still wearing his disguise. He quickly discarded the wig and his contacts, staring into the gloom once more.
With a breath, his occular implants activated, allowing him to see in the darkness. His antennae were picking up the air current that ran through the hall. He followed the air to the doorway of the room which housed the chemicals. Stepping through, he managed to find what he needed to use on the serum, and carried them with him in a metal box. Zim stopped in the hallway again, pausing to think.
Where was that doorway? He had never had to use it.. the power had never completely gone out in the base like this before. He could have strangled the Dib-filth for his annoying habit of making life harder for the Invader. Growling, he started down the hallway again, his spider-legs clicking on the floor as he moved. He did find the door, hidden in a hallway that diverged from the main one. Prying the door open, he descended a long flight of stairs, going down to Dib on the level below.
Every single door of the base was open to Dib now.. he could have had a field day if his legs were working correctly and he had his camera. He could have given Zim so much hell... why did he have to be dying now? It was just so unfair. Such a perfect oppourtunity. He heard a faint noise from far off.. what was that? A creaking sound down from the end of the corridor.. his hearing had seemed to sharpen when he lost his ability to see. He wondered if Zim could see in this darkness. He soon got his answer, though, when he heard the tapping of Zim's spider-legs on the metal floor, coming closer at a steady walking speed.
"What have you done now, Earth-stink?!" Zim growled and Dib heard a metallic sort of clunk as Zim set down the box containing the vials of chemicals and the extraction machine. The Irken stared down at the boy, and the boy looked confused as he searched the darkness above him for Zim. A smile that Dib couldn't see played across the Irken's face as he realized that his enemy was blind.
"I touched the wrong button?" Dib suggested, smiling slightly.
"You just can't stay out of trouble, can you, Dib? So many horrible things I could do to you.. oh, the hellish beauty of it all!" He ranted, then looked at the dark console as he hovered above the Dib. Dib just rolled his eyes, Zim threatened him all the time, why should he care enough to be afraid now? Zim reached forward and pressed a few buttons, the computer hummed softly, coming back to life. Zim's eyes adjusted to the light from the monitor almost instantly, but Dib saw no light at all. He heard a few more beeping noises, then the hover disk rose again from underneath him, lifting him into the air once more.. the lights came on in the base like a flood, Dib saw a mild flickering which lead to darkness again.
"What's happening?" he turned his head in confusion once more.
"I just turned the power back on.. duh," Zim said irritably, looking down at his nemesis, then drawing the spider-legs neatly back into his PAK. Dib looked around in confusion and then finally fear, and Zim looked at him strangely, as if the boy was crazier than usual. "What is wrong with you now, human?" Dib looked right at him and just blinked, his eyes had a curious, glazed-over sort of look.
"I-I don't know... I can't see the lights. I can't see anything..."
"What madness are you speaking of now?" Zim leaned closer, looking intently at Dib's large amber eyes. He waved his hand in front of the human's face.. drew his fist back and acted like he was going to hit him... Dib didn't flinch or show any signs of knowing what was going on. Dib really was blind.. not only in the dark, but in the light as well. The Dib was now even more helpless than he had ever seen him.. he couldn't move, couldn't see.. what would go next? Probably his brain, Zim thought.. and part of him almost laughed with glee, but it was quickly drowned in a strange sort of sorrowful pity that he felt inside.
"Are you sure the lights are back on?" Dib asked.. he knew it was a stupid question, and he knew the answer to it, but he didn't want to believe that he was really getting worse. The promise of death still hadn't sunken in.
Zim picked up the controls for the transporter from the ground, then picked up the items he had brought and placed them on the hover disk next to Dib. "Don't ask inane questions," he said softly, guiding Dib forward. He would have to get to work on the serum as quickly as possible, and do more research as well, just to make sure that it wouldn't kill the boy.. After all, what might work on some horrible lizards may not work the same way on humans.. what if he ended up killing the boy faster, rather than saving him? He felt his insides twitch again...he didn't want to think of Dib dying anymore, no matter how much he may hate him...no matter how much he had secretly started to not hate him so much.
"AAAHHH!" Zim shrieked, holding his head and wanting his stupid thoughts to cease. Dib held his ears.. sounds were becoming louder than they actually were, starting to give him a Zim-induced headache, much like what Red tended to get each time Zim called.
"What the hell's the matter with you?" Dib asked, glaring in the direction of Zim's voice.
"Nothing! Leave me alone, smelly human!" Zim shouted, glaring daggers back at the boy and shaking his fist at him. His shouting caused Dib to flinch and cover his ears again.
"Ugh... you're too loud, you know that?"
"Whatever, Earth-vermin," He led Dib back into that same medical room that they had been in minutes and also hours before. He pushed him roughly back onto the medical table, but this time Dib felt something softer beneath him.. not just the cold, unforgiving metal that had been there before. Zim stared at the human and found himself blanching again, he didn't want to do this.. with a sigh he pulled out the extraction machine with it's small, deadly looking needles and pulled a glove off of one of his thin green arms.
He adjusted the machine to take what he needed for the life-saving (or so he hoped) serum, and pressed a button on it. The machine beeped and latched onto him, sunk the needles into his veins... why it needed so much, he did not know. He usually didn't extract his plasma this way, he didn't take so much at a time.. it hurt, and he made a small pained noise as the needles took what they needed and pulled out of his skin again.
He gasped loudly when he was free.. then opened the new bag of syringes and started loading them into the extractor once more. Dib looked in his direction with both curiosity and renewed fear.. what was Zim doing?
"Zim?" He questioned as he felt the little Irken's hands on one of his arms, pushing up the sleeve on his trenchcoat and the shirt he was wearing underneath. "What are you doing?"
"Just relax, Dib-human," Zim said, trying to use a tone of reassurance. He didn't need the human panicking now... he could ruin everything.. he could hurt himself.. he could damage the extractor, and it would waste precious time if he had to get a new one.. "this may hurt."
"What might hurt? What are you-" Dib gasped and tried to push Zim away as the needles pierced his arm. He could feel his blood being drained into them, could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He may of let out a yelp or a scream, but he didn't hear it over his heartbeat. When it was over, he felt even weaker than before, not to mention there was much more pain. "Wh-What did you do to me?" He stared in the direction that he thought Zim was in.. he could just barely hear the Irken's breathing.
Zim took the syringes filled with his enemy's blood from the machine and turned it off.. human blood was so.. red. Deep, dark, beautiful red. He smiled and held them up to the light. It was disgusting, but this substance was what kept the Earth-filth going.. nasty, beautiful, horrible blood. He set them down and pulled his glove back on.
"I needed a blood sample," he said as he set all of the things he needed on a table on the other side of the room.
"That hurt!"
"Well, of course it hurt, Dib-monkey. That was six needles at the same time!" Zim's antannae twitched slightly, he was staring at the screen and monitoring the Dib's body once more. "Computer, alert me when GIR finally comes home."
"GIR is home," the computer responded, showing a picture of GIR now on the couch, watching some inane soap opera and giggling madly as the actress did the most horribly executed scene of sadness ever. Zim glared at the monitor.
"Figures he'd show up after the power is restored. GIR!!!" He shouted. Dib groaned with pain and covered his ears again. The noise carried up to the main room, where GIR took off down the elevator in the garbage can and appeared by Zim's side in a matter of seconds.
"Yes, my master!" He saluted with his red eyes, then they changed back to blue as he stuck his tongue out.
"GIR, I need you to fetch me some of that disgusting human food for the Dib.. he seems hungry," he smiled slightly as he stared at the status of Dib. It was true.. Dib hadn't eaten since before he had come to Zim's house for some spying... and even though it hadn't even been half a day yet, it seemed like such a long.. yet such a short time ago... don't ask me how a period of time can feel both short and long.. but to him it did. His stomach growled loudly as a confirmation of Zim's statement.. and GIR giggled and disappeared again.