A/n: So I wasn't going to write the next part for a few days (though I doubt I will finish writing this all in one sitting, since I have to leave for work in a little over a half hr), but the fact that I got not one, but TWO great big detailed reviews made me want to write more as fast as possible. So I dedicate this to Dibsthe1, Goopy Goo, and the mysterious "" (for some reason I don't think that the little squiggle/asteric/squiggle sign is gonna show up here...) for getting my ass in gear. Especially cos now I want to answer plot questions as soon as possible, and how better to do that than to write, I guess. ( And I would hate to have Goopy Goo's paper-cut suicide on my hands. That just sounds messy…but a really cool band name. Huh.)

Warning: Some sexual content below. And a few swear words. The bad ones. Anyone know the basis for what makes a pg-13 rating verses an R rating?

Disclaimer: I own my apartment and my falling apart 'Cons'. That's about it. Zim isn't on that list, unfortunately. If it were than I could afford to buy Converse back from Nike and I could get new shoes without worrying about finding some sweat-shop kid's finger in the box. sigh (That happened, too, a few years ago. Read it in the paper--a kid's finger found in a Nike shoebox. Ewww.)

PART SIX

I was busy kicking the crap out of a punching bag in the gym/training facility when Kala found me. I sensed her in the door way, watching me, long before she announced her presence. She and I had enjoyed a fling a while back, while we were running our "railroad" and she always had expressed an interest in watching me train. At that time we had sparred together, taking out our emotions of anger towards our new lot in life on each other and then burying those emotions in physical pleasure once our punches and kicks turned into exhausted pushes and shoves turned into pokes and tickles turned into passion and the rest of the troops knew well enough to leave that part of the building lest they heard the muffled sounds of our love making. I can't quite remember when or why that part of our relationship stopped. There was no arguing, neither of us really grew tired of the other one, just, one night we both exchanged admissions of the possibility of love for the other and never spoke or acted on it again. I guess we both just realized that we were soldiers, now, and, with the very real possibility of death looming over our shoulders daily, it was best not to get too close to the other--or anyone for that matter. There wasn't time to mourn any longer. It was time now to act.

However, I could still sense her presence in the doorway, and could tell that, while she was irritated with my actions earlier in the conference room and was coming to give me a good talking to, the sight of my half naked form drenched with sweat, my muscles showing more than usual from the work-out they were receiving, was doing something very good, yet very frustrating to her. At least, part of me hoped that's what was happening. One could never quite know with women. I did know, however, that the thought of me being all sweaty from this workout made me think of her being all sweaty from a workout, which lead me to think of her being all sweaty from a different kind of workout, entirely, which made me think about baseball, because this was no time to think about sex.

"What?" I demanded, gruffly, letting her know that I knew she was standing there, even though my back was to her. I gave the bag another swift punch, making it rock, slightly.

I could hear her chuckle from behind me. "I never will understand how you do that, Dibby."

Ah, there is was. The nickname. The "affectionate mutilation of one's name" as she liked to put it. I knew now that her thoughts had been on the same path as mine. "What's your distraction?" I asked, chuckling a bit as I gave the bag what-for. I could hear her coming up behind me, her boots making swuishy noises on the padded floor.

"Trying to remember why I learned everything there is to know about Sailor Moon in the ninth grade. Yours?" She was beside me, now, her head tilted slightly to get a better look at my face.

"Baseball." I gave the bag a final round-house kick and then dropped to the ground, the padding cushioning my landing.

"Of course."

I pointed to my towel, which was lying a foot or so away from her, and she handed it to me without a word, sitting next to me as I wiped my face. I put my head between my knees, attempting to calm my breathing and heart rate. I lay my cheek on my knee and looked at her, my eyebrow raised pointedly. She sighed.

"Are you alright?" She asked. It was the one question I knew was coming, and the one that I dreaded most. I frowned.

"Do I look like I'm alright?" I stood up, stretching, hoping to distract her from the next question I knew she would ask.

"What really happened to your sister?"

Shit. The ploy didn't work. I put a scowl on my face and draped the towel around my shoulders. "I don't want to talk about it, Kala." I growled.

"Damnit, Dib, one of these days you're going to have to talk about it!" She cried, jumping to her feet. She grabbed my shoulder, and turned me to face her, "Elizabeth is inconsolable over your order to turn off Gir; it feels to her that you ordered him killed ! Gretchen is beside herself with worry over both the girl and you, the troops are becoming paranoid, now, about invasion and just within the past few hours there have been 20 people caught attempting to go AWOL, which is never good for moral, 'specially considering we need all the troops we can get! There is a war going on outside, Dibby! A fuckin' war! And it isn't exactly comforting to know that the enemy knows the exact button to push to make our leader become an over emotional wreck! So just fuckin' get off your emotional high horse and get off your chest what happened to Gaz and deal with it! We would all understand! I would understand! There are 200 of us trusting you with our lives, Dib. I would think that you would be able to trust at least one of us with your secret."

Her hand was on my face, now, the anger draining from her eyes as a felt mine fill with tears. The war that was waging inside of my body was almost as bad as the one outside of the doors of the abandoned school. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell somebody, but I was so ashamed of myself, so angry with myself. Because I knew that, even though it was Zim's hands doing the work, I was the one who committed the sin. I was the one who was to blame. I was the one who…

"I killed her, Kala." I whispered. Her eyes opened a bit wider in shock, but her hand didn't leave my face. Her fingers and thumb wiped away my tears one by one as they left my eyes, "I did it. I sent her to that house. I thought he wouldn't harm her. She had insisted he wouldn't hurt her and I let her go. I didn't even try and stop her." my words were coming fast, now, my tears even faster. It felt good to finally cry, even though there was still that voice inside of me calling me an idiot for doing so. My tears wouldn't change anything, so why bother? "She went into that house, and he…if she didn't come back out in an hour I was supposed to go after her, but…Oh Kala, it had been such an exhausting week! I hadn't gotten any sleep in days, and the tree I had hidden in actually felt comfy for once, and…Kala, I fell asleep! I was supposed to be watching for her signal, waiting for her to come out, or for me to have to go it, but I fuckin' fell asleep!" My insides felt like they were on fire, now, the pain of my confession burning my soul. "When I woke up it was dark, and…and I could hear her screams, coming from the basement labs. They were horrible, but I couldn't get in, the gnomes…he had upgraded the gnomes, and…Kala, I killed her. I killed my sister!"

I was sobbing full force, now, the weight of it making my knees weak and forcing me to the ground. Kala went with me, and my arms went around her waist as hers went around my shoulders as she made little cooing comforting noises, and I sobbed into her neck.

"It's not your fault, Dib, you didn't kill her. She wanted to go. You know that even if you had tried to stop her, she would have gone, anyhow. It's not your fault. You couldn't control her or your body's actions. It's not your fault, Dib, really, it's not." She took my face in her hands, again, forcing me to look at her, as her fingers wiped more tears. "It's not." She repeated, softly.

My eyes traced a triangle from her left eye, to her right, to her lips, and back again. In that instant, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Whether it be because of her readiness to forgive my sins, or because of the long repressed emotions we held for one another, I didn't know, but before I knew it, my lips were on hers and my hands were in her hair, and we both were whimpering, myself out of desperate need for comfort, and her out of the sudden contact. She responded to my kiss with an equally eager fever and before either of us realized, our hands were working on their own regard, mine pulling off her shirt, hers pulling at the zipper on my pants, and soon we were both naked and moving against each other in a way that neither thinking about sports nor cartoons was going to stop. There was a slight hesitation at the key moment and our eyes met, and I saw that her need equaled mine and with a slight nod from each of us, our eyes closed and I slid into her, her gasp and her moan music to my ears.

Neither of us cared who heard us. Neither of us cared that there was a war outside, or that people were dying while we indulged in such simple, primitive pleasures. All that mattered was our need for what the other gave. And for the moment, that was enough.

A/n: Ok, so that's where I'm ending things for now. The next chapter will be up prolly by this weekend, if not sooner, and back to the normal flashback and then present scenario format. Sorry that I spilt the last chapter and this one away from that, but I don't think that it really took away from anything, did it?

As always, please click the neato little review button and tell me how I'm doing. Praises will make me feel smooshy inside and flames will make me giggle, cos any response is better than no response, cos it means that someone out there is listening. Or something.