Things remained silent for an eternity. Time was at a standstill as the tall Irkens above gazed down upon us, almost as though they were inspecting each and every one of us. I didn't want to think about what would be done to someone not paying the strictest attention. For my own safety and Dib's I stood tall and stared straight up, not shwing the least bit of fear.
I watched as the Irken dressed in purple garments passed the microphone over with a lazy brush of his claw to the other one. The red Irken snatched it right away and began a long-winded speech of utmost importance.
…Well not to me. I only pretended to care. Dib was all ears however.
" Yes. Thank you." He waved ceremoniously to his crowd, as though he were Miss America or an unimportant official in a parade, " First of all, we'd like to inform you that one of our most securely guarded prisoners has escaped."
It didn't take long for every set of eyes in the room to find Zim. Even Dib and me set our glares on him. After all, we wouldn't be up here if it hadn't been for him. Zim desperately glared at an innocent alien in another's cluthces who was gasping for air.
" Yeah Zim, you." The red Irken sighed before addressing his public again, " Secondly, it seems that he had an accomplice…an alien girl from his planet of conquest."
There was something about him. Maybe it was his tone or the way he held himself so high, but it was something all right. He was so over-confident and so cocky…and so like Zim in many arenas. The thing that really separated these two though was that one was obviously more competent than the other. Combined with the other elements he could prove to be a very dangerous enemy.
" My Almighty Tallests Red," Zim began, wiggling his antennae in an odd fashion at each of them, " and Purple, I beg your pardon-"
" You should really be begging for a lot more than that Zim," Purple scolded.
" You realize that this isn't just your usual stupidness, right?" Red explained loudly, broadcasting this moment of weakness for all to hear, " Zim…this is treason. This is a serious crime."
There was an edgy silence in the room. I watched as Zim's eyes faded and shut for several seconds. His antennae twitched uncomfortably and shame might as well have been written across his forehead in marker. The entire room had their eyes on him, weighing him down.
" But…sirs…" He said, his loud voice shaking, " That…that is not what I was imprisoned for, correct? I…I had no means of contact at all…"
" Yes Zim, originally you were imprisoned for breaking our brand new 'Don't call us we'll call you' code…for the fifth time in two days," Red said, an eye narrowing at the memory, " and then you blew up the experiment you had been trying to show us…for the fifth time in two days. We've already explained that we can't have someone like you in the military. …Quite honestly you're a menace to Irken society in general."
" …But that's besides the point!" Purple interjected, " No invader is to ever side with the enemy. There were reports from your captor saying that there was a human trying to distract him so that you could escape."
The Tallests looked absolutely delighted that Zim had screwed up on this level. Their mutual look of glee was enough to make someone's insides twist around. There was something not right about it. It was wrong somehow.
" Zim, you know the punishment for betrayal to the Irken army," Red stated.
" I WOULD NEVER BETRAY THE IRKEN ARMY!" Zim shouted in desperate rage, " I don't know where you received your information but it is INCORRECT."
Purple blinked in confusion.
" Uh…Zim?" He said, " We said we found out from your captor."
As always, Zim ignored any contradictory comments. Zim was enraged, making fists and angry noises.
The whole situation seemed blown out of proportion to me. Sure I had never been a militant so I wouldn't really know…and sure Zim was a little stupid…but wasn't this all a bit much? I couldn't help but breathe the tension in the air as Zim fumed silently.
" As I was saying…" Red gave Purple a pointed look for interrupting him in the first place, " You know that the punishment for betrayal…is execution."
That word was sweet sweet candy to Red. His face was twisted and contorted into a sickening grin as he spat them out.
Zim's eyes fell to the floor. There were no words said, as there were none needed.
So. Zim really was going to die. I suppose that made me just a little more concerned, however Dib was out of immediate danger so I began to silently plot our escape.
Dib watched with silent eyes. I couldn't tell if he was happy or sad or just going crazy again.
The whole trip was rapidly turning out to be a big mistake. Zim wouldn't be saved and it didn't look like Dib had changed at all. If our luck didn't turn around, we would die right alongside Zim.
Heh. Maybe Dad would be the main suspect back on Earth when our bodies didn't show up.
" You know…we were actually going to just stick you on Dirt until you melted into a disgusting pile of goopy goo," Purple giggled, delighted at the thought, " but now we actually have an excuse to do you in!"
If Zim had any previous ideas that his precious Tallests had ever liked him at all, I'm sure they died with that sentence.
Red was laughing as well.
" How should we do it though?" Red asking, grinning a mile, " Should we pull his PAK off and wave it around while he twitches on the ground?"
At this there were many roars and only a select few coherent voices crying out pleas. Each one was out for Zim's Irken blood, wanting to feel it on their flesh and taste it on their lips. Even Shing let out a low demonic growl.
To all this Zim had no reaction. It was always a rare moment when he had nothing to say. Usually have some kind of crass comment or some stupid remark, but now his head was hung. Whether it was in honor or false respect for his leaders, or just shock at how the mighty have fallen, I wasn't sure.
His precious leaders were holding their sides as they roared in laughter at the thought of his demise. Zim hung almost limp from his spider legs; he had probably been killed on the inside already. He had been slowly breaking before, but this was enough to really hit home for him.
…Not that it was my concern.
" Oh…oh I know!" Purple yell loud enough so that the whole universe could hear, " We could put him in the bind chair and blow his brains out with lasers!"
Red feigned shock and utter horror.
" But Purple!" He said, " That's only for our most criminally insane prisoners."
After only a minute or two of serious staring, they burst into laughter even louder than before.
"Of all soldiers to betray us…man I never thought it'd be Zim." Red mused, slowly calming his chuckles.
" I know!" Purple giggled, " This has to be the happiest day of my life!"
" YOU'RE WRONG!"
I turned sharply to my right where Dib was standing up straight on his own. He pulled his heavily torn sleeve back up on his shoulder, glaring fiercely into the sky where the Tallests hung proud like gods. Quite honestly, Dib looked like he was going to kill someone.
When I turned every single eye in the room followed me, wondering who dared to speak out against their gods. Even The Tallests shot him a curious glance. I however, was shocked.
The unstable little boy that had been leaning on me moments ago had run off into the darkness. Now Dib stood facing death in the eye and wasn't even flinching at all. Something had changed in that instant. …Dib had…he had come back…
…Or maybe he had lost even more of his mind. Idiot.
That wasn't right though. There was a fiery intensity in his eyes, the kind that always appeared when he was fighting stupid Zim. It was the look that always betrayed him to Dad, turning his dreams into battle cries for sanity. It was a look that would inspire most normal people. I knew better.
It was the look he always got just before he did something stupid.
I really should have been grateful. After all, Dib wasn't really crazy anymore. Unfortunately, this wasn't the place or the time for gratitude. If he did something stupid now he'd get us killed.
Then again, I could have stopped him. For some reason though, perhaps a moment of my own insanity, I let him ramble on.
" We're…wrong?" Red slinked towards the glass menacingly.
He carefully touched his claws against the glass, letting the sharp sound stab and slice the air around us as he scratched the surface. One antenna arched; he looked like he was going to eat Dib alive.
Dib didn't seem to mind though. He just kept pressing on for fool's gold.
Idiot.
" We are NOT friends with ZIM!" Dib yelled at the top of his lungs, " Me and Zim are SWORN ENEMIES! He's a threat to the Earth! He's trying to enslave humanity!"
My eyes had narrowed at the "we". I did NOT want to be caught up in Dib's stupidity.
" Zim isn't even a threat to a Minktoot," Purple retorted, delivering a low ego blow to Zim.
" Heh heh…Minktoot…" Red chuckled under his breath.
I felt just a little sorry for those Minktoot things, if only for the fact that they had such horrible names.
Dib looked frustrated. Not because it was a new discovery that Zim wasn't very strong or a very good Invader, but probably because his plans weren't working at all. Zim wasn't any safer and we weren't any closer to home.
" Besides," Purple pointed out with a grin, " if you're his enemy then why do you care whether we kill him or not?"
" Yeah if we off him, won't it be doing you a favor?" Red added, " He'll be out of your oddly pointy hair."
I had been wondering the same thing for quite sometime now. If they really hated each other so much why would they go so far for each other? It wasn't something I could understand at all. Maybe that was because I never had any close friends…but Dib and Zim weren't friends…after all friends weren't supposed to try and kill each other were they?
Shing took one of his long claws under Zim's chin and forced him to look up at the disgusting Dib thing that dared to grace his presence. Zim the disgraced, Zim the traitor, Zim the broken solider stared at my brother with wide eyes. There was no struggle and there were no words. There was just a silent and shocked awe.
Dib didn't speak for the longest time. Long enough to make me wonder if he had regressed far enough to become silent and despondent once again. Then he did a strange thing.
He grinned a wicked grin. His eyes were sparkling so bright they outshone the sun, however many millions of miles away it was.
" That just wouldn't be as much fun." Dib explained, his smile never fading, " I can't let anyone else have the joy of killing him off but me."
…I'm not entirely sure I will ever understand those two. Ever.
The Tallests stared at each other for several moments looking awed by his speech, or probably just pretending to be. There weren't any more snickers as they stood looking down on us.
" Y'know…why are we doing this, Red?" Purple asked, " Why are we negotiating with this tiny…thing…when we could just leave them all down there and let them die that way?"
" …You bring up an excellent point." Red said, looking surprised he hadn't thought of that before, " I mean…we are the Tallests. We don't have to take that from him!"
" You heard that slave drivers!" Purple shouted joyously into the microphone, " Focus all of your hurty pains on Zim…and those other two. Especially the one with the BIG HEAD."
There was a roar of approval as the side panel painfully pushed its way back down, hiding the Tallests' sadistic smiles once more. Every single predator in the room moved away from their prey and stalked towards us, scaling the walls and going up so high they touched the stars. It didn't take very long for us to be surrounded by these beasts.
Zim seemed to trip over his own mechanical legs as he fell over, trying to get away. His extra appendages were sucked back into his PAK and the three of us were forced back into each other as the nightmares creeped in closer and closer.
I turned my head sharply at Dib and glared.
" I hate you." I said, meaning it. I was pretty angry that he had gotten us into yet another potentially fatal mess.
Dib didn't say a word to defend himself. He was too busy cowering in perfectly sane fear as the first monster brought its arm up to strike.
(A/N: …WOW. …Just…just WOW. Thank you VERY much for your reviews. This story has hit over 100 reviews and it is my first story ever to do so. So thank you once again! : ) So please R&R and I'll update ASAP! : ) )