A/n: Well, here we go again ladies and gents. This story is drawing to a close. This is the last chapter before the ending(s). This is also the last flashback part. I was going to actually split this into two, but felt that it would be redundant to do so, since both take place at the same location. So instead I'm going for the ultimate challenge: the flashback within a flashback. Muahaha.

Oh, and just so you all know, the first chapter of my next story, "You Only Live Twice" is up and running. It features a mid-teens cast and is a lot less angsty and a bit more in character than this story, though is still pretty much on the serious side. So everyone should check that out. Yup yup, you should.

Ps: Thank you so so much to Dibsthe1, Spectacal, Senri, and Only a Handful of Time for your awesome comments. You all rock, hardcore.

DISCLAIMER: I'm dissin' my claim, yo! (Translation: I don't own IZ.)

PART TEN

I sat on the cliff like hill that over looked the city. I had made my way up here often, throughout my life. This is where my mother had taken me to look at the stars, and where my family camped out to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July, before my mother's death. This was where Gaz and I's awesome escape from the Pig Girl part of my father's labs had ended up. This was where I experienced my first kiss when I was 15. The girl's name had been Alice. Her hair had been brown and she had freckles on her nose. Zim had helped me work up the courage to ask her out, if only because he thought that I would shut up about her if she became my "love pig". This was where Zim and Gaz and I had celebrated our graduations. We made a fire and roasted marshmallows, which Zim didn't understand the point in and Gir ate the majority of. This place was important to me. This place held some of the happiest memories of my life.

Conversely, this where I had buried what little remained of my sister.

This is also where Kala found me after I had left my army's final "hoorah" party.

But we'll get to that, later.

The day after I had found the mutilated remains of Gaz in Zim's basement labs, the actual invasion began. The Irkens had attacked from space, first. A laser shot from the sky, eradicating buildings and vaporizing people. Panic and chaos erupted throughout the city. Looting and vandalism ran rampant. People were crushed and killed in a mass effort to evacuate. I had stood in the middle of my street, watching as the people flowed around me, salmon attempting to swim upstream, lemmings running towards their doom. It was all I could do not to laugh hysterically. Not to grab them and shout in their faces, "SEE? I TOLD you they were coming! I TOLD you this was going to happen, but did you believe me?! You DESERVE your fates, you ignorant FOOLS!"

But I didn't. I just stood. And watched. And waited.

After the first day, the ground attacks began. The Irkens were everywhere, They captured our leaders, our teachers, our scientists: anyone who would compromise the Tallest's positions as Supreme Rulers: anyone who would have vast knowledge of the old way of life--information that could and would taint the minds of the Empire's newest slaves. There was a transmission sent out, showing their executions.

My father, of course, being the world's most famous scientist, was one of the first killed. He was shot in the head, the laser going straight though his skull. I felt no emotion, watching him fall. Felt no remorse. How could I? I hadn't seen the man in months, I couldn't reach him after I had found Gaz's remains—the man died thinking that both of his children lived. If he remembered that he had children at all. He was still my father, and I still loved him, but it was the idea if him that I cared about. When it came to the actual man…I had no real opinion. How could I mourn someone I didn't even know?

I managed to avoid capture basically by pure sneakiness. I used the information that I knew about Zim to my advantage. I knew the Irkens' limitations. I knew how their slimy little minds worked. In essence, I could become them, if I truly felt like it. I would basically just make my way to parts of the city that they had already been. The Irkens, by nature, were consumers. They had no use for what they already had absorbed.

A few weeks after I discovered Gir on what would be my final visit to the ruined skeleton that was once my greatest enemy's base, I took to the sewers and began my infiltration and liberation of the newly founded Irken slave camps. I began to form my army. The rest, as they say, is history.

I sat at the site of my sister's makeshift grave that final night, weaving the chain of her necklace in between my fingers. When I buried her at the base of the giant oak that stood on this hill, I had debated burying her necklace with her. She hadn't been without it since she was seven years old, when she bought it as a morbid joke to herself with some money a family member had sent us in sympathy for our mothers "accident". Part of me knew she would want it in the afterlife, if there were such a thing, yet something kept me from placing it in that hole. Something wanted me to keep it. I wondered if it was the same part of her that spoke when she decided to adopt my abandoned trench coat all those years ago. At any rate, the necklace stayed with me, in my pocket, a constant reminder of my sister, and most of all, my mission.

"I tried to visit Mom the other day," I spoke aloud, looking over the edge of the hill at the blackness that had once been a city, "the cemetery isn't there anymore, though. The Irkens must have destroyed it. After all, what use do their slaves have for places of memories—all they do is remind them that they used to be free." My knees were to my chest, my elbows resting on them, the necklace draped between my hands. "So I guess you'll have to tell Mom 'hi' for me next time you see her. Tell her that I love her and all. Yeah, I know you hate the mushy stuff, but just do it, alright? It means a lot. Ok, fine, I'll clean your room for a week whenever I get where you are, alright? Thanks. Brat."

I allowed myself to fall backwards to lay on the grass. The stars were dark, tonight, the moon a Cheshire Cat silver grin. I smiled back at it, mournfully.

"Oh yeah, it's after midnight, isn't it? Happy birthday, sis. I would have gotten you something, but I've been short on time—that whole 'planning an invasion and running an army' thing." I chuckled, "Ok, you caught me. I did get you something. Or, rather, am planning you something. A party. Tomorrow at Dad's lab. It's gonna be huge. And noisy. Hell, there might even be fireworks!"

I sighed and sat up again, "Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't joke around like this. It will be dangerous, I know, but…in the end it will be worth it. Our people will be free again. Or will at least have taken the first step to getting there. And I'll be giving you the best present I can think of. You always loved revenge."

I rested my head in my arms, the necklace now dangling limply from one hand. "They're all having their last bit of fun, now. I got talked into giving a toast after dinner—no I didn't scream like a howlin' monkey, thank you very much. Yes, I know I did last time I had to give a speech, but that was for graduation, and as I recall, it was because someone thought it would be funny to put a pincher bug down the back of my gown while pretending to give me a hug. No, I don't know who that could have been, either. Can I finish telling my story, now? Thanks. Anyhow, I had to give this toast, and as I looked around the room, I just felt this deep seated feeling that…these people wouldn't be coming back after tomorrow. That is was it. This was 'goodbye'. I don't think that I could handle that. I don't think that I can deal with 'goodbye'."

"So you'd rather say nothing?" A voice broke through the silence behind me. I spun around, startled, and spotted the shadowed form of Kala leaning against the rusted remains of what used to be a '92 Cavalier.

"How long have you been standing there?" I was defensive. After years of being called 'crazy' for most every little thing—talking aloud to myself being a prominent one—the realization that I had been caught talking to my dead sister caused me to instinctively raise my hackles.

Kala chose to ignore the tone in my voice and just shrugged, pushing herself off the car and walking towards me. "Long enough." She sat beside me on the ground, plucking a blade of grass and twirling it between her fingers. We sat in silence for a few moments and then she spoke again, her voice low and soothing, as if speaking to a horse that might spook, "You were talking to Gaz?"

"Yeah." Gaz's pendant lay snug in the palm of my right hand, the chain wrapped around my fist. My left hand searched the ground for pebbles. Finding one, I tossed it into the air a few times before pitching it off the hill.

"So you can expose your soul to the dead, but not the living?" Kala asked.

"I think I've exposed enough to you, Kala, haven't I?" I replied, coldly, still not facing her. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I saw thee hurt written on her face as she caught my double meaning.

She swallowed and forced her voice to be indifferent, "Yes, I suppose you have." She turned away from me, looking instead out over the cliff at the nothingness that remained below us.

The silence returned, then, this time laced with awkward pain. I felt guilty for hurting her, but I reminded myself that it was for the best. Living with Gaz all those years, I learned much about the art of distance. About how causing someone pain and pushing them away made it easier for you when they finally decided that they didn't care anymore. When they finally left, as it was inevitable that they would, if you truly cared for them.

Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and I broke the silence, again. "This is where I fought Zim for the last time."

Her surprise was expected, "Huh? I thought that you hadn't seen him before that transmission since before the war?"

I chuckled, "Do you really think that I would have admitted that I was stupid enough to try and kill a hologram?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. I continued:

It was the night that I buried Gaz. I was sitting on the hill, facing the oak, my back to the rest of the world. My hands were covered in blood and dirt and as I wiped some of the sweat from my brow, the dark red mixture stayed behind, leaving a mark not unlike war paint. I fought against my stomach, trying to keep it in one place, trying not to think about what I had had to do to get what little remained of my sister up onto this hill. How I had to scoop up the mess with a small shovel, placing it on a sheet, which was in no time stained red with her blood.

Zim was no where to be found as I completed this grisly task. His base lay completely empty. Though I had the feeling that he was somewhere—perhaps on his orbiting space station—watching me from hidden cameras. Waiting for me to leave before returning. Not wanting to face my wrath. If that were the case, then Zim was smarter than I originally thought.

I had carried the sheet up to the hill, rolled and tucked under my arm like a football in an attempt to keep it from any curious eyes. That was all I needed right now—for people to notice the 'crazy Membrane boy' carrying a bloody sheet with his sister no where to be found. Though luck was on my side that night, and there was no one on the streets. But then, it was about 3am by that point. Anyone who was out was too drunk to care.

I dug the hole with my hands, placed in the sheet, and covered it, again, all without shedding a tear. I was in a state of emotional shock, or something. Either that or my rage outbid my sorrow for control. Either way, while I was in mourning, the tears would not come, even though the tightness in my chest refused to loosen.

I stood, brushing the dirt off of my pants, and heard someone clear they're throat behind me. Terrified that it was the police, I spun around quickly, hiding my hands behind my back, only to face someone I wanted to see even less.

"You've got a lot of fuckin' nerve, Zim." I growled.

The small alien had the decency to look sheepish, guilty. I noticed somewhere in the back of my mind that he was wearing, once again, an Irken uniform and was sans disguise. I thought nothing of it, though. My hands came out from their hiding places and curled into fists at my side.

"I…came to pay my respects." Zim explained, calmly.

"She doesn't need your 'respects', Zim." I stated, between gritted teeth, "After what you've done, you don't deserve to be near her. I suggest you go before I leave you in the same condition you left her."

He sighed and put a gloved hand to his forehead, "Look, Dib, I know how this seems—"

"You 'know how this seems?' Excuse me? You mean you didn't ruthlessly murder my sister? You mean you didn't leave her mutilated corpse in the basement of your house to rot?" My voice was rising. Every second it became harder to control my anger.

"I was under orders." His voice was calm, his eyes averted.

"Oh! You were 'under orders'! That makes it all better." My arms were moving on their own accord, waving in the air with the force of my bitter sarcasm.

"You don't understand!" His voice now matched mine in volume, his cool and distanced façade crumbling, "The Tallests saw Gir discover Gaz hiding while I was completing my transmission. Gir wanted to play and you know how loud he gets when you tell him 'no'. He caught the attention of the Tallest, and they decided that they wanted a sacrifice to prove my loyalty. If I didn't comply they would have killed me. I had to do it, Dib, alright? I didn't want to, but I had to."

"You chose your life over hers?" I growled, disdainfully, "Fuck you, Zim. Just…fuck you."

His temper finally broke, "Do you think I enjoyed listening to her scream, Dib-filth? Huh? Do you think I enjoyed the pain in her eyes? Do you think I enjoyed her blood on my hands?"

"It wouldn't surprise me."

"Oh, and where were you, Dib, huh? Where was the 'protector of Earth' while his sister writhed in agony under the claws of the 'evil alien'? I know what a control freak you are, Dib. I know there's no way you would have let her come to my base alone, so where were you? Where were you as your sister's blood painted my floor?"

He had me there. I felt that familiar wave of self-loathing wash over me. I lowered my eyes, "I fell asleep." I muttered.

"What? What was that? I couldn't hear you." He put his hand to his ear, mocking me.

"I said I fell asleep, alright?" I shouted, my chest heaving.

He had the gall to laugh. "You…you fell asleep? You sent your sister into the lion's den and then decided to take a nap? Oh, that's rich, Dib-human, even for you. You fell asleep. Heh." His laughter died down into amused chuckles. I felt the anger rising in my chest, filling every inch of me. The rage was almost uncontrollable. He continued to speak, "You really are a complete failure. In the end, I didn't kill your sister, Dib; you let her die."

That was it. That was the last straw. I lunged at Zim, flinging my body towards him with all of my might. I caught him around the waist and found myself on the other side of him, face down in the dirt. I pushed myself up, feeling blood run freely from my nose. Turning around, I saw the figure of Zim waver and flicker and then return to it' solid looking state.

The alien laughed again, "Foolish human, do you think that I'm stupid enough to come here, myself, and risk injury? I am sending this transmission by hologram, which you still haven't seemed to have learned about. Idiot."

I glared at him though my dirt-smudged glasses, the blood running from my nose from the fall and from my hands from the force that I was digging my nails into my palms. How dare he mock me. How dare he laugh. I spit on the ground in front of him, and age old gesture, but the only one that could truly express the utter loathing that I felt for my former best friend.

"Next time we meet, Zim, you will die," I threatened.

He smiled smugly, "I look forward to it, Dib, if only because it is so amusing to watch you fail." And with that said, the image of Zim flicked and disappeared, leaving me alone on the hill once again.

I could feel Kala's eyes on me. The whole time I had been speaking, I hadn't looked at her, instead choosing to focus my attention on the city far below us. I turned to her, now, meeting her gaze.

"Why didn't you tell us this?" She asked, bewildered.

I shrugged, "It didn't seem that important. And besides, like I said: I was embarrassed. I almost broke my nose attacking something that wasn't even real."

"Wasn't it?" she countered, cryptically Before I could ask her what she meant, she stood, brushing the dirt and leaves from her backside. "I'm going back to the base. I promised Gretch that I would help her run damage control—make sure no one ends up hung over and what not. You coming?"

I shook my head, "Nah, I think I'll stay here a little longer. I need some time to think."

She frowned, "You need to spend this last night with your troops, Dib. With your friends. They want to see their leader. They want to share drinks and tell stories. They want to know that no matter what happens, tomorrow, everything will be alright."

"And what if it isn't? Do you want me to lie to them? Give them false hope? Pretend that everyone isn't going to die, tomorrow? That I'm not leading them on a suicide mission? Is that what you want, Kala? Aren't I damned enough?"

Her features grew hard, cold. "It seems like you're determined on damning yourself either way, Dib. If you decide to get out of your ivory tower and meet the rest of us here on Earth, you know where to find me. Have fun with your self-pity. Tell your sister I say 'hi'." And with that she spun on her heels and left, retreating back down the hill to the city.

I watched after her for a few minutes and then turned back towards the view. "Yes, Gaz, I know she's right," I sighed, "But what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to look those people in the eye knowing that I'm sending them to their deaths?" I furrowed my brow in irritation, "Oh, don't you start, alright? You forced me to let you go, remember? I wanted to go home."

I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes. "Sometimes I just think that it's not worth it, Gaz, ya know" Sometimes I just…don't want to care."

The world around me was silent, and I realized, once again, that I was speaking to nothing but air.

"Hello, Dib." Zim greeted, false warmth in his voice, "Glad to see you could make it."

"Zim." I acknowledged, my voice dripping with rage and disgust. I stood, wiping Elizabeth's blood onto my pants.

"I was sent down by the Tallests to greet you. They ask an audience with the human foolish enough to attack their base. Come, we mustn't keep them waiting." The alien began to turn to leave. I made a small motion with my hand behind my back to Kala, praying that she was watching for it. I then reached for the handgun that rested in my belt. Zim turned back when he heard the gun cock.

"We're not going anywhere, Zim." I stated.

He chuckled, "Oh, Dib, and what army is going to stop me from taking you?" He glanced pointedly across the room, "It seems as if yours has been destroyed." He made a disapproving clicking noise and shook his head in mock disappointment. "People really need to stop trusting you with their lives—you always just let them down in the end, you know."

I gritted my teeth, keeping my gun trained on his head. I needed to keep his eyes on me, away from Kala. "You're not baiting me this time, Zim. I'm not falling for it."

"Ah," he feigned surprise, "finally learning how to keep your emotions in check, huh? Good thing, too—I already turned off Gir, so he's not here for you to take it out on."

I could feel the gun waver in my hands, slightly, just for an instant. I narrowed my gaze. "How do you know about that?" I demanded.

"I know many things, Dib-stink. The eyes and ears of the Irken Empire are everywhere. We are omnipotent. "

"Bullshit." I sneered, noticing Kala reaching her position behind Zim. Just a little farther… "Your race isn't anything but a bunch of over-zealous consumer whores. You are a plague on the universe; a disease; a parasite. You take and take and give nothing in return. Omnipotent? Hardly. You're nothing but a bunch of mislead locusts." Kala was directly behind him, now, crouching in an attack stance. In one more second she would spring and we would have him right where we wanted him. Just one more second. One more—

"You dare call ZIM an insect?" the alien raged, sounding much like he did when we were children, "You want PROOF of Irken omnipotence? Fine. I shall show you proof." His eyes narrowed, dangerously, hate making them shine like rubies.

In the instant that Kala chose to attack, leaping at the alien's back with all of her force, he deployed one of his spider legs. It shot backwards from his pak, it's razor sharp tip piercing through Kala's skull with a sickeningly wet sound, as if it were a cantaloupe that had just been impaled by a javelin. Her eyes shot wide open in surprise and pain, a choked "kkhek" noise escaping from her throat. Zim pulled his metal appendage free, making a wet sucking sound, and Kala fell heavily to the ground, as if she were nothing more than an overgrown doll.

Zim turned his head, looking over his shoulder at his handy-work. "Damn," he swore, "I must have miscalculated. I hadn't wanted it to be that quick." He shrugged, turning back, "Ah well. The result's the same, anyway." A smug smile rose upon his lips, seeing my reaction. Watching as my mouth gaped, my chest heaved as I struggled to breath, as my mind fought to realize what had just happened. "Ah. I see you are finally in awe of me. It's about time you realize my superiority. Now, come. The Tallests are waiting."

With that statement, Zim turned his back on me, and began to make his way back to the platform lift he had entered the room by. On his way, he stepped casually over Kala's body, his boot causing little ripples in the puddle of blood that had by now mostly surrounded her. That was what did it. That was what caused me to come to reality, to realize what had just occurred. That was what triggered every ounce of rage that I had to consume my entire being: his complete lack of respect for the dead. The way he just stepped over her as if she were some tree branch that just happened to be in his way. His complete lack of acknowledgement that she was once a living, breathing creature.

I let out a guttural primal scream as I launched myself at Zim's retreating figure. My eyes were blind with hatred as I swung at him time and time again, my fists meeting flesh every time. Adrenaline coursed through my body as I turned him to face me and punched him in the face, sending him backwards to the ground. I was down with him in an instant, my hands around his throat, my face locked in an ugly grimace.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" I demanded, punctuating every word by slamming Zim's head into the floor. His hands were on my wrists, his eyes glazing over in disorientation and pain. "What gives you the right, huh? You fucking monster!"

An ugly pinkish stain was growing on the floor underneath Zim's head, drops of the substance flying upwards and speckling my glasses. Tears were forming in my eyes, the familiar hot pressure building in my sinuses as I watched the light begin to fade behind Zim's ocular implants. His face was covered in his own blood and drool, his lids half closed. I realized in the back of my mind that the hands on my wrists were not attempting to pull my hands away, but instead urging them tighter. I shrugged off the thought and focused on my dwindling rage. I felt so many emotions at once, I had been holding so much back for so long that it all wanted, now, to come out. I felt as if I would be torn apart with the pressure.

A lump was in my throat, causing my words to come out in choked sobs, my blows becoming weaker as the adrenaline rush faded. "Why, Zim? Why did you make me do this? Why couldn't things have just stayed as they were? Why did you make me kill you? Why did you want to die?"

I was worn out, my body and mind exhausted, and I allowed my body to rest, covering the small form that lay beneath me, my head resting lightly on his shoulder, my hands still on his throat. His breath was laboured, wheezing. It was almost over. Soon my revenge would be complete. Just a few more seconds…

"Because it's her birthday, Dib," I heard him whisper faintly, struggling to get the words out around my crushing hands and his crushed larynx, "And she…she always did like…revenge."

I raised my head from his shoulder, the expression on my face one of total bewilderment. My former friend smiled slightly before shutting his eyes. His mouth moved and I leaned forward in order to hear, my cheek and ear mere millimeters from his lips.

"Be careful, Dib, there is…more going on here…than you think. Your role in this is…crucial…don't…don't let them confuse you. Don't let them take…your soul."

He let out one more wheezing cough and then I felt the slightest pressure as his lips brushed against my face. A line I once read, "You betray me with a kiss" flashed in my mind, but the thought was soon pushed away by the sound of Zim's last breath, his body seeming to deflate from the force.

I sat there for a few seconds, my hands still around the small alien's neck, my mind trying to comprehend what had just occurred. Suddenly, from behind me, the sound of applause was heard. The walls seemed to melt away, revealing cold metal, punctuated every few feet by small projectors. My surroundings had been nothing more than a hologram, and I knew then that the trap that had been laid for my small army was more intricate than originally thought. I loosened my hold on Zim's body and spun around to find the source of the sound.

Two extremely tall Irkens stood behind me, clapping, their faces identical expressions of smug mockery. I recognized them as the Tallests Purple and Red, and their presence surprised me very little in comparison to the mockery of evolution that was situated behind them.

It was a giant Irken brain, pink and fluxuating. Wires covered almost every inch of it, a giant pak, covered in red spots affixed directly in its center. I stood transfixed, horrified. I knew what this was, but I shuddered to think of what it meant. If the Irkens had brought a Control Brain here, then that meant that not only was my father's old lab the main Irken post on Earth, but that Earth's take over meant more than originally thought. That this was more than the Tallests being bored and looking up their 'good friend', Zim. Instead, I had found myself in the middle of something very, very complex and also very, very dangerous.

"Human Dib," the Brain spoke, it's voice deep and resonating. The Tallest ceased their clapping and stood in silent respect, their faces still masks of snide hatred, "you have been deemed worthy."

---

A/n: OK, yeah, I'm mean. It's a cliffhanger. But remember kids, the next chapter(s) is the end. If I continued writing now, this chapter would be the end and it would be hella long.

I'm not sure if I quoted that one line correctly and I'm hoping that I didn't take the slight parallel too far, there. I've envisioned Dib with a bit of a Jesus complex (or a martyr complex in general), and with the reference I had made in an earlier chapter to the 30 pieces of silver thing, I though it would be the best way to explain Zim's dying with a kiss and have it not be interpreted in a Slash sense.

Although, if I needed to explain it, then I probably didn't do it clearly enough in the chapter…hmm….Ah well, I'm prolly just being paranoid.

The next chapter will be up sometime after Xmas. I have to write two for the price of one (and make them good), and get the next chapter of YOLT up, as well. Plus I'll be away from my computer for a few days doing that whole visiting family thing… But yeah, still, the ending is a doozy, so hopefully it will be worth the wait. (And I can do the movie in my head justice when I put it on paper…)

Thank you again for everyone's reviews, and hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday.