A/n: Not much to really say here. Thanks to Dibsthe1 and Goopy Goo for reviewing…ummm….Oh, and I have a new fic running around in my head that I'm prolly going to start after I'm done writing this chapter, if only because it's being insistent (one scene in particular, because it's just so deliciously awful), so look out for that. Don't worry, though, I'm not gonna slack on this one, cos this one is after all my baby. Aren't you, Schnookums, yes you are…ahem…yeah.

DISCLAIMER: I OWN ZIM! I DO I DO I DO! IT'S MINE! ALL MINE!! MUAHAHAHAHAHahuh?…what's this? A subpoena? I have to go to court? For copyright infringement? Aw, you're no fun….

PART NINE

The next morning found Gaz and I on the walk outside of Zim's base. I had spent the night in my old room in my father's house, staring up at the ceiling, trying to sleep and failing miserably. In between bouts of insomnia I continued my efforts to inform others of the impending threat. Unfortunately, by now, not even the Swollen Eyeballs would believe me. I guess after so many times crying "alien" the world will just let you get eaten. Or something.

I stared at the field of lawn gnomes that resided in Zim's front yard for what seemed like hours. My body was sleep deprived and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I almost missed Gaz walking through the front gate. I grabbed the sleeve of my old trench coat that she was wearing and pulled her back to my side of the gate, where it was safe.

"I don't think this is a good idea, Gaz."

She pulled her arm from my grasp, "He's not going to hurt me, Dib, alright? I know what I'm doing. It's just Zim."

"It isn't just—"I noticed the gnomes swivel slightly at the raised volume of my voice. I lowered it back to a decibel that was underneath their levels of detection, "it isn't just Zim, Gaz—at least not the Zim we know. He's on a mission, now. He wants to impress his leaders. He will kill you."

"He's not going to kill me, Dib, alright? He said that if he met you on the battlefield he would kill you. He never said anything about me."

"I think he was just making a generalization."

"I think your voice is stupid."

I was taken aback at her reversal into childhood insults, "You haven't said that since we were kids."

"Well you're acting like you're 12, I figured I might as well follow suit."

I rolled my eyes, "Now you're just being ridiculous."

"No, you're being irrational."

"You're being reckless."

"Paranoid."

"Over confident."

"Over protective."

"Damn it, Gaz, I'm you're brother; that's my job! What am I supposed to do? Just let you waltz in there to your doom? Say, 'alright, Gaz, you win', just like I always have? No, fuck that! I'm putting my foot down on this one, Gaz. We're going home. We'll figure out some other way to get through to Zim, ok? Let's just go." I grabbed her arm, again and tried to pull her along with me. She wouldn't budge. Instead she pulled back, spinning me around to face her with strength that I didn't even know she possessed, anymore.

"Well what do you propose we do, Dib, huh? Just sit around and wait for the world to explode? We have to do something!" Her eyes pleaded with me to understand her resolve, "Right? You spent the first three years we knew him trying to save the world. It's my turn. Ok?" She tilted her head a bit to get a better look at me face, "Ok?"

"No, It's not, ok, Gaz," my voice was calmer now in an effort to strengthen my will against her. If I could just keep from getting too emotional, she wouldn't be able to make it through my defenses. "You're right, though; I spent a long time fighting Zim, trying to save the world, which is why I need to finish the job, now. This is my fight, not yours."

"Oh, and what are you going to do, pin a nasty note on his door?" She scoffed. I felt a twinge of indignation rise within me.

"Hey! That was in an alternate reality! I had an iron lung! And how do we know this?!" I knew what she was trying to do, how she was trying to trick me, and my sleep deprived brain wouldn't be able to keep up for very much longer.

"Time travel, paradoxes, you need to brush up on your science fiction."

"Fine, alright, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Your plans never worked, remember? You would get caught, he would get all Bond Villain and I would have to come save your ass. It's time I get a shot, alright? You want to protect me? Fine: if I'm not back in an hour, you can come bargin' in after me, guns a-blazing, Ok? Just let me do this!"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. She had me. She was too stubborn and I was too tired to fight her will anymore. I just had to hope for the best. "Alright, fine. But keep your watch on at all times. I want constant communication. Constant progress updates. A running commentary, alright? And if I think something's fishy I'm gonna pull you out of there whether the hour is up or not, got it?"

"Yeah yeah, fine fine." She replied, waving nonchalantly over her shoulder as she started down the walk. "I'll be fine. Just…go find yourself a tree to hide in or something."

I watched her walk down the path to the front door as if she owned the place, the gnomes not giving her any heed. One would have thought that fact alone would have roused my suspicion even farther that this was a trap had I not known already that the gnomes had never bothered her in the entire time Zim had been here. Still, the sense of foreboding that had been plaguing me for days, now, returned stronger than ever, and as I watched her lay her hand on the front door's knob, I somehow knew that something horrible was going to happen. That I would never see my sister again. The thought chilled me to the bone.

"Gaz!" I called. She turned, an impatient scowl marring her features. I wanted to run up to her, give her a hug, tell her I loved her, something, anything to show her that I cared about her just in case this was the last time. But I couldn't. We weren't that kind of family. If I held her, she would surely break. "Just…be careful."

The expression on her face was one of cautious bewilderment. I thought for a minute that she understood what I was trying to tell her, and that she was dealing with the same internal struggle. But then, I did need a new glasses prescription.

She smiled, that sad, wistful smile, "I'm always careful." She answered, and went through the door.

I stood there on the walk for a few minutes, watching the door. Then realizing that I was accomplishing nothing, I decided to follow Gaz's advice and made my way up the tree that over hung Zim's yard. The perfect vantage spot. The fit on the top branches was a little snugger than I remembered, but then, the last time I had sat there I was 6 years younger and a good 2 feet shorter. I made myself as comfortable as I could, the leaves encasing me like a cocoon, or a blanket, and switched on walky-talky portion of my watch. Gaz's voice came through the minute speakers, punctuated by static. I couldn't make out any picture, which worried me at first, until I realized that she wore the watch under the sleeve of her jacket., so the darkness I was watching was the inside of her sleeve. I relaxed and lay my head back against a branch, listening to my sister's running commentary of her progress.

"Alright, loser, I'm in. No one seems to be home, though. They're probably down in the lab. Though I'm surprised Gir isn't up here watching Scary Monkey. Zim must have locked him into Duty mode, again. And I feel weird talking to myself like this. How can you not feel like an idiot every moment of the day?"

I scowled at her insult, but decided not to respond. I didn't have the energy to arguer, and I figured that as long as she was making fun of me, she was safe. I allowed myself the luxury of allowing my burning eyes to close behind my glasses.

"Ok, the base floor is empty, I'm gonna use the couch entrance to the labs." I heard a metallic rumble that was unmistakable the couch moving upwards to grant Gaz entrance. "God, I hate these tubes. Make me feel like I'm a spit ball or something."

Her voice was growing louder, but my brain wasn't fully responding to it. I subconsciously recognized what was going on, but the part of me that cared wasn't responding.

"Why the hell does everything have to be pink, anyhow? You would think that if the Irkens are so damned advanced, they would have some sort of fashion or interior decorating sense. Ugh." I heard faintly the 'whoosh' noise of the tube lift coming to a halt. "Alright, I'm in the labs. This room is empty, though I think I hear voices coming from down the hall…" Her voice was fading into my subconscious, my eyes and body were just so heavy, and the blanket of leaves was just so warm, like an embrace.

"Ok, I can see Zim," she was whispering, now, lulling me with her words, "he's talking on that giant screen to what looks like the Tallest. Saying something about preparations being almost complete for they're arrival. I'm gonna have to wait till he's down with his call to talk to him, I don't want the Tallest to see me….wait! What's that?!" I barely heard her, now, "Oh, Shit! Gir, what the hell!? Let go of me! Dib—" She was cut off. But I wouldn't realize it till it was too late. I was already asleep.

I woke up hours later to a strange noise. It cut into my dreams like a siren, waking me with such a start that I fell from my hiding place in the tree. It took e a few minutes to realize my surroundings and the situation, and it was then that I realized that the sound was my sister screaming in agony. It invaded my senses in stereo, from my watch and from the air, suffocating me. It came from the ground beneath my feet and I knew that she was in the lower labs, if I could just get to her…

I ran towards the door to the house, in my haste, forgetting about the guard gnomes. I barely felt it as their lasers burnt my flesh, and their robotic arms tore at my clothes. I had one thing on my mind, only, and that was saving my sister. My sister whom I failed to protect. The only important person left in my life, I had to save her, I had to I had to I had to I…

One of the gnomes finally got a firm grip on my body, and pulled me towards it, holding me to its body in a sick parody of a lover's embrace. I fought against its grip, kicking and screaming, running on pure adrenalin, but it was unrelenting; if anything, it only tightened its hold.

After what couldn't have been longer than a few minutes, though it felt like an eternity, the screaming stopped, not fading away or dying out, but just stopping suddenly, as if someone had cut it with a knife. At the same moment, the gnome released me, dumping me into an ungraceful heap onto the ground. I was up in an instant, racing through the door and down the tube that still lay open from when my sister had entered the house hours before.

I was out of the elevator before it even came to a full stop and made my way at full speed, twisting and turning through the halls that would lead me to the only room that Gaz could be in where she would be made to experience such torture. The Experimentation Room. Images flashed through my mind as I ran, my brain trying foolishly to prepare me for what I may, and probably would find. My side ached, my lungs burned, but I still only had that one thought rushing though my mind, a mantra, a chant, 'find Gaz, find Gaz, find Gaz, find—

I came to a screeching halt at the entrance to the room. At first I thought it was empty, aside from the alien equipment that lined the walls, and that Zim had gotten a new lab table: a red one, to match the rest of the base.

It was only when I took a step forward and slipped on a puddle of sister's blood that I realized fully that I was too late. My mind accepted my defeat. My adrenaline rush dissipated and I allowed myself to truly see the ruminants of what was once my sister which were…everywhere. Blood and flesh and bone and cloth, the gore was splattered like abstract art across the walls and floor of the room. I felt my stomach contract and I spilled what little I had eaten that day onto the floor beside me, the taste burning me throat and mouth. I was too shocked to cry, too disappointed in myself to mourn. I felt such a deep sense of self-loathing that it almost consumed me. I had failed her. She had trusted me to save her and I failed her. I let her die. I might as well have been the one to cut her body to pieces. It was all my fault.

I don't know how long I had sat there, on the floor of Zim's lab, my clothes once again turning dark with a loved one's blood, before I saw the glimmer. A bit of white among the red that lay on the examination table in the center of the room. I raised myself from the floor to examine it, my body creaking it's argument. I felt like I had aged 30 years in the past 30 minutes, as if my body was now that of an old man's instead of one that was barely 20.

I reached the table and stared aghast at what the glimmer had been. Gaz's skull necklace lay there, looking up at me with the cocky grin that the dead had. It had been deliberately and almost lovingly placed on Gaz's remains, perfectly clean of blood, despite the condition of the rest of the room. It was a message, and a clear one, and I was filled with such a blind rage at the sight of it and I couldn't help the scream that escaped my lips, then, one that began in that pre-historic part of my brain that told me that the only answer to such a challenge was to kill. And kill, I shall.

I snatched the necklace from the mass on the table and stormed from the house with a new purpose, destroying anything and everything I felt like as I left. Zim would pay for this, and he would pay dearly.

The gun was hot in my hand, burning me through my gloves, but I was relentless in my mission. I could hear Kala's ragged breathing beside me as we cut down Irken soldier after Irken soldier that stood in our path. The majority of our team had been diminished, leaving only Kala, Elizabeth, myself, a few injured soldiers that were on their last legs and Gir to make our way to the top of the base. To the Tallest. To Zim. We had lost communication with the rest of the teams hours ago, and could only pray that they were alright, although praying had never done much for anyone of us before.

There was blood stinging my eyes under my glasses and I wiped it away, frustratingly as the last Irken fell and the hall we were in ended at a door. We stopped for the moment, thankful for the breather, and began to quickly and efficiently tend to each other's wounds. Elizabeth attached her remote to the keycard lock on the wall beside the door and began the process of hacking into the system. Kala grabbed my face, not entirely gently, and began to administer treatment on the cut that I had acquired on my forehead. So that's where the blood had been coming from. I hadn't felt it.

"I hope the others are ok," she stated softly as she bandaged my wound.

"You know they're not." I answered, not meeting her gaze. To tell the truth I was uncomfortable with her closeness, with this intimacy. I had too much on my mind recently to deal with it. I knew that if she was too close I would destroy her. That's just what happened to the women in my life that I cared for. They all died. I pushed her away a little too roughly, and finished wrapping my head myself.

"That's horrible to think, Dib." She admonished, rubbing her shoulder where I had pushed her.

"It's called realism."

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm tired of your fatalistic attitude. Why fight if you don't think that you're going to win. Why raise everyone's hopes?"

"Because I know that I'm going to win, Kala. Everyone just probably will die before I do." I was about an inch from her face, hissing my words between clenched teeth in order to keep them between myself and her, "As for hope, it's they're own faults for believing in something so asinine to begin with, not mine for allowing them an excuse to believe."

I watched as her jaw clenched in anger, and I felt a small pang of guilt for being a cause. I pushed it away. She opened her mouth to say something further, but was cut off by a small beeping noise and Elizabeth's lilting voice stating, "Done!"

I made motion for the troops to rise and prepare to enter the room. If my calculations were correct, this was exactly where we wanted to be. This was the beginning of the end. This was where we were meet Zim.

I entered the room first, at a crouch, and seeing that it was empty for the moment, motioned the rest of my troops to follow me. We made our way along the wall cautiously, too involved in watching for Irken reinforcements to really notice Gir wander off into the center of the room. It was only when we heard the android's small voice shout, "Mini-moose!" did we realize our folly. It was a trap, of course it was a trap, how could I have been so stupid as to think that it wasn't a trap—

Mini-moose floated in the center of the room. It gave a small squeak of recognition at Gir as the robot made his way over to it. There was a strange purple light surrounding the small floating creature. A force field. The trigger.

"Gir!" I shouted, "No, don't touch the moose!" But he wouldn't listen. He was too excited to see his long lost friend. I made a move to go after him, but Elizabeth was one step ahead of me, lunging at the robot and catching him around the midsection, landing in a heap. The force of the fall, however, knocked loose the small ball at the top of Gir's antenna. We all watched in horror as it bounced across the floor once, twice, three times, before coming to a roll right to the base of the purple dome. It hit a crack and wobbled for a heart-stoppingly tense instant before the fates made their decision that this was not our lucky day and the small ball tapped the force field ever so slightly. But it was enough. The room exploded into light and noise and Irkens came from everywhere.

I ordered for my troops to fire at will and followed suit, making my way towards Elizabeth. She was holding onto Gir tightly with one arm, which shooting wildly with the other. He aim was perfect, despite the struggling robot who still didn't realize why he couldn't play with his friend, but Gir was creating a blind spot, which could be deadly if any of the enemy soldiers picked up on it.

At that instant, as if reading my mind, one of the small green aliens turned towards the girl, aiming for her blind side. I shouted a warning and let loose a shot, just as Elizabeth was making an attempt to dodge the enemy fire, but it was too late, The laser pierced her flesh right below her left shoulder, coming through, back to front. She tensed and arched in pain and then fell limp to the ground. Gir's screams matched my own as I ran towards the alien, letting off round after round into him, even though I knew he was dead by the second shot. After he was nothing but a pile of burnt flesh, I made my way over to Gir and Elizabeth who was, amazingly, still breathing.

I pressed my hands onto the wound, even though the laser had cauterized it so that there was no blood, and no amount of pressure could close the gaping hole that was in the girl's chest. Gir was sobbing into her side, exclaiming apology after apology. Saying how he didn't really want to see Mini-moose anyhow, please be ok, please be ok. He lifted his face and pulled a sticky looking lolly pop from his head. "You can have my candy! It's chocolate bubble gum! Your favorite!"

Elizabeth smiled, though her face was wracked with pain. She opened her mouth, but no words could form. She settled for laying her hand on the small robot's head. I watched in silence as her face contorted in agony, her throat moving as if she were choking and then her entire body relaxed completely, her hand falling limp onto the ground.

I barely registered the silence that had grown in the room. The tense anticipation. All I heard were Gir's pitiful wails and sobs and pleads for Elizabeth not to stop, not to be like Gazzy, not to stop working. I reached out my hand to the small android. "Gir." I said, softly. He kept on with his sobbing, either not registering my voice or ignoring me. I tried a little louder. "Gir." He still didn't react. I tried a third time. "Gir!"

However, this last time a voice joined mine. A voice that sent shivers up my spine and made Gir lift his head so suddenly that I could head the snap of the gears in this neck trying to keep up.

"Master?" He asked, wonder in his voice. The title was not directed towards me, however, but to the small green alien that was lowering from a platform from the ceiling. I felt my body tense at the sight of him, my fists clenching and unclenching at their own accord. I reminded myself to be patient. To wait until the right moment before attacking.

Zim's platform reached the ground with a hydraulic hiss, and he stepped off, towards Gir. "Yes, Gir, it's me." The robot stood and turned to face his old Master. "That's right, Gir, come on, it's time to come home." He held his arms out to the robot in a welcoming gesture.

I looked at Gir and noticed something off. His eyes were flashing colours; blue to red to blue to red. His small hands were clenching and unclenching, mirroring my own. All at once he lunged towards Zim, his eyes flashing red, laser guns and rockets rising from his head and shoulders. He stopped directly in front of the alien, small chest heaving, all weaponry pointed at Zim's face.

A look of fear flashed across Zim's features briefly and for a moment time seemed to stop as Gir decided whether or not his programming would allow him to blow his Master to smithereens. The second was wasted, however, as his eyes flashed again and all weaponry lowered as the small robot broke down again into sobs, his small fists banging against Zim's chest like an angry and distraught child.

"Why, Master?!" He cried, "Why do you kill all Gir's friends?! Why?! I want them back! Give me back my friends! I want my piggy, I want Gazzy, I want 'Liz'beth! Give them back! I hate you! I hate you! I hate…" His pleas dissolved into halting sobs, and Zim's brow furrowed in silent contemplation before calmly reaching down and, using the small switch at the base of his neck, shut the android off. Gir fell to the ground with a clank, his eyes blank and dull.

Zim sighed again and then raised his eyes from his failed servant. Those eyes scanned the room, and the bodies of both Irken and human soldier alike before landing on me. His mouth then formed its trademark zipper-toothed smile. "Hello, Dib." He greeted, false warmth in his voice, "Glad to see you could make it."

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A/n. Whoosh. That was only slightly draining. Nothing like effectively killing off three characters in one shot. Man. Man o man. Whoosh. That's all I can say. I need a cigarette after writing something like that. As always, please R and R. Next chapter should be up soon, as should the first chapter of my other story. Yay!

Ps—this chapter alone was 17 pages, bringing the grand total up to 62…maybe I will break a hundred, after all…hmmmmm….