Chapter 13: Time to Start Repairs

Zim ran all the way back to her base. Where else would she go? Spending so much time with the humans must've made her weak, if she'd actually let her base get taken over by them in the first place. She'd been prepared for this, however, as experience had shown time and again that overconfidence was often the cause of her frequent failures. And where was GIR? Stupid robot was probably cavorting around in some filth or other. Disgusting thing. But at least it didn't go around plotting behind her back...

There!

Zim spotted her yard. It looked like...well, like it had been hit by a multitude of explosives, which of course it had. The tree on her steps had been reduced to ash, and balloon fish were gone; perhaps blown away and decorating the roof of someone else's house across town.

The gnomes, miraculously, were still intact, if not missing an eye or a hat or a piece of beard.

Picking up a good sized rock (or it could've been a chunk of sidewalk, it was hard to tell), she took careful aim at her doorbell and pitched.

And missed.

Cursing under her breath, she picked up another rock and chucked that as well.

It took seven tries, but she finally managed to hit the doorbell squarely. As a product of this, the cliché 'trap-door-under-the-welcome-mat' opened up, and would stay open for another 7.4 seconds.

Taking a running start, Zim sped past her former security system, the gnomes
having already activated the second her foot fell on the weight sensors buried under the soil.

She felt lasers burn across her back and ankles, but ignored them and leapt feet first into the trap door's entrance, with only milliseconds to spare.

It was not as pleasant a ride from ground floor to the dungeon as it would have been in the elevator, but the comfort of prisoners had never been input into the design.

Zim landed in a random, empty specimen tube, the dungeon outside of it tinted a sickly lime green by the glass.

Bringing out only two of her spider legs this time, she cut a rectangle to her size and, using those same legs, brought the cut glass inside the tube and set it aside.

She stepped out quietly, though there really wasn't a need to. She'd never installed any security in the dungeon. Why should she? Intruders were -supposed- to end up there.

There was a handprint scanning panel on the far wall used to open the main door, but there was no reason to believe it would work for her now. Who knew how much hacking and rewiring those human girls had done?

Besides, she thought, sidling up alongside the wall next to it, if my DNA coding and voice recognition were the only things changed, the door should be opening of its own accord any-

(swish)

The service bot rolled in and, ignoring Zim, went directly to the pod she'd been deposited in. It pressed a preprogrammed sequence of buttons next to the tube that would analyze the prisoner, and it would later report its findings in the computer, who would then inform Zim (when she'd been in charge).

She ran into the hallway, the many twists, turns and forks in the road, enough to resemble an ant colony and confuse any human, perfectly clear and mapped out in her head. So it was that she purposely went into the dead end, the one with the large, and glowing 'Exit' sign meant to mislead stupid humans that somehow managed to escape the dungeon to their doom!

Zim opened the door to reveal the 'dragon' behind it, a mechanical creature of her own creation that, instead of spouting fire, released a specially formulated acid chemical that was as harmful to humans as water was to Irkens and vice versa.

"Intruder Alert!" the dragon said, and then blasted Zim squarely, the force of it nearly knocking her over.

When it had emptied its belly on her, the dragon stated boredly, "Intruder Vanquished," and the door closed.

Zim wiped the stuff out of her eyes and proceeded to wait. The rest of the security system had been alerted to an intruder and been succinctly informed of its demise. The 'dragon' was an old design, and had incapacitated a few humans in its time, and knew that it had caught this one well and thoroughly. It had been a bit puzzled that she didn't scream when it burned her, and that she hadn't fallen down writhing to the floor; but that didn't matter. A clean-up bot would be along shortly to deal with her now. She'd be no further trouble.

When the bot came, it was carrying a little trashcan, into which Zim was unceremoniously deposited. She growled indignantly, but the bot ignored her, and then carried its burden to the lab to leave it on the examination table for inspection later.

After it left, Zim made haste to the main computer, quickly prying open a patch on the panel and feeding a line from her PAK directly into the system.

Taking a deep breath, she relaxed and closed her eyes, letting consciousness slip from reality and into the digital world within her computer. Almost as soon as she did, she winced. The damage was extensive. There were dozens of newly erected firewalls surrounding a 'virus nest', while the spawned viruses themselves were hungrily devouring everything else, and then there were-

ZZZZZTTT!

"AAAAARGH!" An electrical charge from the system made a direct hit to her PAK and, had they not been built insulated to begin with, could very well have been fatal. As it was, the force of it was still enough to blast her body across the room, making her lose the connection and slamming her hard against the wall.

Booby traps!

Zim stood up, rubbing her sore head and, grabbing a fistful of fried wig, yanked it off. The information had come a little late, but she'd seen where the core of the disturbance was located. She'd also seen what she was going to have to do to get to it.

Resolutely, she marched back to the open panel and plugged herself back in, more cautious and alert this time.

Digging deep into her PAK's back-up files, she pulled out an anti-virus program she'd written long before. It should be enough to handle any inferior human meddling!

Zim carefully chose her battleground, planting the program into its center, and input the activation code.

And as the program began to spread, the viruses changed their focus from random to targets to this new threat and began to attack.

She left the two to their own devices and made her own attack on the first firewall, swiftly bringing that one down as well as the one after it and each one after that, bringing her closer and closer to her goal.

And then she was there. Like ants coming out of an ant-hill, their numbers seemed endless, the newborn viruses emerging fully matured and with an insatiable appetite.

Zim stomped the entrance flat.

Oh, that wasn't enough to kill the source, but it would delay their production. By the time the little buggers managed to emerge again, her program's poison would have seeped so far into the system that they would emerge dead and harmless, the source collapsing soon after.

Zim came back into herself and unplugged her feed, smiling tiredly at her ingenuity. That was almost too easy...

(click)

"What the-?"

Upon opening her eyes, she turned around, her eyes widening as the battering ram booby trap sprung and swing towards her. There was no time to react, no time to get out of the way, only to stare dumbly at her approaching doom.

The impact didn't hit her front, as she'd been expecting, however. It came from her side, as another body tackled hers to the ground and out of harms way, just in time to hear the shattering crash of the ram connecting with its new target, the terminal.

The owner of the body gazed worriedly down at her, "You okay?"

Zim blinked at him. Once. Twice. "Dib?"

"Yeah," he smiled, "I thought you'd come back here. I think I arrived a little after you did. You were already hooked up to the computer doing whatever, so I just hung back and watched you. You were in there for so long though, I was starting to lose my nerve; but then I heard that 'click' and saw the ram and..." Dib shrugged, "I just reacted."

"Whatever," said Zim, fighting the urge to hug the boy and hating herself for it, "Come to turn me in, human?"

"No," Dib lost his smile, "Zim, I...I didn't plan on-"

"Getting betrayed? I know," she shoved him off and stood up, averting her eyes from his gaze, "It happens."

"It's not like that!" Dib scrambled to stand also, "Okay, maybe it was at first, but that was before-"

"I'm not interested in your excuses!" Zim said, her voice then becoming cold and impersonal, like a machine, "The computer is infected with viruses. I managed to take out the main nest, but it will take several weeks to find and remove them all; too long to find a new partner to reprogram, so the plan has not changed...You will pick me up tomorrow after school at 8:30pm sharp. If you are not here by 8:31, I will hunt you down and drag you to the dance by your tongue."

She turned her back on him, walking to stand before her ruined terminal, "Now, please leave. I have much to do and have no use for your distractions."

Dib instead walked to stand behind her, wanting more than anything to put his arms around the alien and yet knowing that that would be a very bad idea at this point, "I'll leave," he said, "But hear me out first."

When Zim did nothing to speed his departure, he continued, "I know this looks really bad for me right now, but I want you to know I'm on your side for this one. Whether or not you believe me, it's the truth and I...just thought I'd...say it..." his voice trailed off.

She wanted to believe him. Oh, Tallest she wanted to believe his filthy lies! She swallowed the forming knot in her throat, "Is that all?"

Dib nodded, then remembering Zim wasn't looking at him, opened his mouth to answer,

"I love you."

Zim's antennae twitched.

Dib stood, shocked at his own words. That hadn't been what he was going to say...The 'yes' that had started in his voice box seemed to have mutated and taken a life of its own, becoming something else entirely when it arrived at his tongue. But it was too late to take it back now.

Zim was quiet for a few seconds, and then asked him, "Enough to forsake your planet?"

Dib remained silent.

"...Then why did you bother saying it?"

More silence.

Zim clenched her fists and held them tightly to her sides, trying to keep them from shaking, "Get out of my base, human."

For a few more seconds nothing happened. Zim was just about to grab and toss the boy out herself when she heard the clicking of his boots heading away from her, listening to them until the sound died away completely. Once they did, she brought a hand to her chest, waiting for the thing squeezing her heart to loosen its grip. When the pain became tolerable, she shifted her focus to the computer.

It was time to start repairs.

(End Chapter 13!)

Bleah! I think I tried too hard to make things interesting with this chapter...Chapter 12 was the upmost peak, the crowning glory of my fanfic writing abilities, and it's gonna go downhill from there. I'm sorry! Just bear with me till we get to the point when they announce the winner of the Dance Queen and King! I swear it gets better!

Anime Obsessor YR: I'm thinking 'YE!' is a good thing, right?

The One What Squeaks: Yay for the last chapter! Polite applause for this one. Cookies for everybody!

All Apologies: Here is the 'more' you were waiting for! Please forgive the low quality, but I promise better in the future!

SingerOfDoom: Yes, you had to wait long for the next chappy, and wait again for still the next! I've been lazy filling in the plot holes of new chapters, but I'm working on it!

Capra hircus: Ahh, I love reading long and detailed reviews such as the one you posted! I hope you can shed some insight into this chapter as well, and let me know what I might do better in the future!

Dark Happi Buniy: Well I thank you for reviewing this time!

deadcat323: Once a month...I SHOULD UPDATE ONCE A MONTH! I used to update once a week, but have settled for the happy medium of every 1/2 month, or 2 weeks...meh!

DibMagician: I thank thee for they praise! Thankies!