Ch 3: Origins

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim, neither Lucky Charms. I do remember eating the stuff though (the cereal, not the show) as breakfast during my elementary school years.

Dib was surprised to see that Xela's blood was bright red, just like humans. Knowing that she was from outer space, he kind of expected her blood to be green, like Zim's. But no, there it was, red as a dying sun during sunset, staining the hardwood floor of Dib's house. Dib, who also had before shown compassion, decided to aid his so-called 'enemy'. Gently he picked her up, and was surprised. He knew she was very skinny, but he didn't expect her to be this light!'Hmm...maybe her muscles are built differently than a human's.' the paranormal investigator thought to himself. 'That I'll have to look into later. But for now...' he glanced down at the unconscious alien in his arms, ' She needs some help.'

The last thing Xela remembered was walking into the house which was somehow the source for the intoxicating aroma that, technically, caused her wound. When she came to, the first thing she felt was a jolting pain in her shoulder. "Ahh..." the cat-like alien gripped her shoulder. She then realized the wound she received had been bandaged, and was laying on some sort of cot bed in (she glanced around at her surroundings) what looked like a lab."What the?.." As if on cue, Dib walked in carrying a sackful of food he raided from the fridge. "You're awake." Xela, deciding to forget who she was talking to, opened her mouth to speak. "How long have I been here?" Dib was unpacking the sack of food into a small fridge on the other side of Xela's cot. "Well, you've been out cold for a day now. I told the school that you've come down with the liver flu, so that'll give you some time to gain back your strength."

"Where am I?"

"Deep within the bowels of my house. Usually my Dad is the only one who comes down here, considering that this is what you would consider a 'home office' for him. And besides, my Dad has banned me from his labs since..." Dib then remembered when he tried to raise the dead when he was younger, and since then Professor Membrane had never let Dib hear the end of it. (A brief reminder: 'Son! There better not be walking dead up there!' ' It's nothing to worry about, Dad. And I said I was sorry about that!') Dib shuddered. "Since when?"

"It's nothing." Dib dismissed the subject with a wave of his hand. "I'm assuming that, since you're here, you were the one who bandaged up my wound?" Xela sensed a need to change the subject, and, as the Nalian saying goes, it never hurts to trust your instincts when they're telling you something. "Yeah. You were bleeding pretty badly when you got here."

"What was that smell I followed?"

"Hmm? Oh, you're talking about the catnip. Well, I kind of figured that, since you're so much like a cat, that maybe catnip would work to lure you here. And I think your ears..." Dib pointed to Xela's snow white cat ears, "...proves my point." Xela then realized the armband she was wearing was knocked off when she got hit. It was something she stole from a female Irken that was floating in space in a escape pod (yes, I'm talking about Tak). "Wait a second, what do you mean by 'lure you here'? This was a trap, wasn't it?" Dib refused to make eye contact. "Yes, it was." the cat-eared alien sat upright. Or at least tried to; the pain in her shoulder restrained her from doing so. "I can't believe I fell for that." she muttered to herself, using the hand attached to her good arm to rub her head. Xela could feel an upcoming headache. A thought just came across her mind. "Wait a second. Why... did you help me? You know, when I was bleeding to death." Dib, who was still looking for the answer himself, shrugged. "Dib!" The frightening cry of Gaz echoed all the way down to where Dib and Xela were. "We're out of cereal; go to the store and get some more." Dib slapped his hand to his forehead. Now he remembered the item he forgot to get while at the grocery store. "I gotta go." Dib edged the mini-fridge closer to his 'captive'. "Help yourself if your ever hungry while I'm gone." And with that, the paranormal investigator trudged up the stairs and out the door to make a perilous trip to the grocery store. The trip would be perilous because Zim's zombie turkeys escaped from the lab and were wreaking havoc on the neighborhood, knocking over cars and whatnot.

Moments after Dib had left, Xela stared at the contents in the fridge. For the past month, she had been surviving by eating food she packed into the storage pods of her ship. She was more curious than picky at the moment, so she opened the fridge (which I might add was close enough for her to open it without moving from her current state). The first food item she encountered was a can of tuna. For a few minutes Xela attempted to open it, (by biting and scratching the top) but seeing that it required the use of a can opener, she put it back and proceeded to the next item. It was an orangeish-redish fruit. It's skin was fuzzy, and when Xela brought it close to her sensitive nose, she detected a sweet aroma to it. Instantly she found a produce sticker and, due to living on earth for over a month, she could read the Earthen alphabet. "Peach." The alien read from the sticker. Wanting to find out it's taste, she used her claws to peel away the fuzzy skin and took a bite. Xela was more surprised at how juicy it was than at how sweet it was. Due to her injured shoulder, her left arm couldn't prevent the juice from slipping down her chin. Just then, Gaz stomped into the room. She still kept up her unhealthy diet of pizza and soda, and she still played video games in excess, so the only thing keeping her from obesity was her job. What does she do for a living? Why being the body guard for their insalubriously paranoid mayor (who is called Mayor-Person due to lazy writing). Believe me- no one who wants to keep all of their limbs would approach Mayor-Person while she was around. It's surprising how many people in this story aren't attached to their limbs (pardon the pun II). For a brief moment, Gaz stared at the alien. "So, you're the reason why Dib keeps on coming down here. I thought he was trying to raise the dead again...or was cooking up another hare-brained scheme to catch Zim." Xela's ears perked up, which creeped out Gaz a little (Gaz? Creeped out? Now I know I'm getting OOC) "Zim? You mean that idiot that shot me?"

"Oh, so he's the one who did that to your shoulder. I thought that was Dib's fault."

While Xela and Gaz carried on their surprisingly civil conversation, Dib was battling a zombie turkey who had in his possession the last box of cereal in the city. "Hand over the Lucky Charms, evil zombie turkey! Or prepare for something...interesting..." Suddenly, the paranormal investigator got an idea. "Hey! Look over there!" Dib pointed to the direction of a delectable looking ham (which was something quite random: I am, of course, very fond of ham considering we have it for Easter dinner every year). Fooled by the wily teenager, the turkey looks towards the succulent candied ham as the said wily teenager grabs the box and dashed for the exit. "Hahaha! You fell for my trick you-" but he failed to finish his sentence, considering the fact that Dib had paid no attention to where he was going and collided with a hobo named Alex who came in to get his usual dinner of Top Ramen.

"You think Dib did this to me?" Xela asked her new found friend. "I mean, I know he can be a jerk sometimes, and he's a little annoying, but I don't think he could do something like that, then try to help the one he hurt." Gaz raised a sleek eyebrow. "Why is he helping you anyway?" But before Xela could shrug, Dib burst in, bruised, cut, and in torn clothing. "What took you so long?" Gaz demanded. Dib gave her a staid look "you don't wanna know." Gaz, who knew her brother, knew that he put the cereal somewhere where she could find it easily and bolted up the stairs to get it. Dib stood there for a moment. "You didn't answer me when I asked you why you saved my life. But since you did save my life, I'll answer your question."

"What?"

"You kept on asking me why I came here. Out of gratitude, I'm going to answer your question. It's a long story, so please sit down. It's also a bit confusing at first, but it makes more sense near to the ending so... please don't interrupt." Dib nodded, mostly to say that he won't. Xela sighed. "This is how it happened...

"Fifty one of your Earth years ago, I lived on a planet called Nalia. The inhabitants of my home planet were like me; Cat ears, claws, tails, such things your people see only in anime and manga.

My people were artistic and peaceful. We honored individuality, yet cherished values such as family and friends. But we did know how to fight. I guess our styles of fighting is what your people would call a martial art, yes?"

"Anyway, we didn't advance much on technology except in things that would enhance the quality of our artwork. My mother was a potter, and my father a metalsmith. I learned both of their trades, mostly because I liked both making vases and forging medallions."

"But one day, our peaceful way of life was brought to a halt. The Irken armada invaded our planet. It turned out that the core of our planet held an exuberant amount of the gem your people call "rubies" which increased the power of the Irken's laser canons by one hundred percent."

"The Irkens are our exact opposites: While we use peace, they use war. While we are artistic, they are bureaucratic. Instantly, we both learned to hate each other. The Irkens tried to take over the planet, but we fought back. Their advantage was technology, ours was skill in our primary fighting style, Kamper Somen Katt" Xela showed signs of going to the verge of tears. "Many lives were cut short on both sides. Our people came to a life-changing decision: rather than to loose and have the entire universe taken over by the Irkens, we would destroy our own planet. All civilians were evacuated to space stations our government bought by trading with Vortian leaders."

"The Evacuation was chaotic. My people's government were inexperienced with the subject. During the process, I was separated from my parents and pushed into a cryogenic freezing compartment that someone had accidentally left open. There I 'slept' for fifty years until someone wandered into the forgotten cryogenics lab and discovered me."

"When I was awaken, everyone I knew was dead. My parents, my friends- everyone! My people were not the same; they had advanced in technology. They still lived in the space stations, wandering the galaxy like gypsies. But, the thing that broke my heart the most, was that they had forgotten the creative side of their souls. They left it unused, undiscovered, unnurtured."

"I tried to adjust, but couldn't take it. One year after I was revived, I stole an escape pod and searched for a place that resembled my now destroyed planet. At first, my efforts to find a new home weren't so successful. But then I heard from some friendly Plookisians that there was a planet similar to Nalia. The native from Earth that was traveling with them confirmed it."

"So here I am, trying to start a new life on your planet." Dib felt guilty: He pestered her, called her names and stalked her (whenever he could keep up with her, of course). Now that he knew that he was making Xela's attempt at a clean slate worse, he felt like beating himself up with an unnecessarily HUGE textbook that they issue at school. Xela then asked Dib a strange question. "Dib, why does liquid come out of a human's eyes?" The paranormal investigator raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"

"I've seen it happen in this thing your people call 'TV'. What does it mean? When liquid pours from a human's eyes?" Dib hesitated, trying to gather his thoughts on how to explain this to her. "It's what we do when we're sad. Sad in a way that words can't possibly describe. It's called 'crying'." Xela sighed. "I see the humans in TV, and sometimes- no, always. I always wish that I could cry too. That way, I can let out the pain I've felt over the things I've been through." Dib still felt guilty over what he had done. Later, while he was changing Xela's bandages. "Xela?"

"Yeah?" It took awhile for Dib to muster up the courage to say this. "I'm...I'm sorry. Sorry for being such a jerk to you all of this time, thinking that you were a threat to all of mankind. If you don't want to speak to me anymore, I'll understand." Xela used her good arm to help Dib finish tying the bandage (all of this OOC is causing him to be bad with knots) "What makes you think that I'm going to stop speaking to you?" Dib was so surprised that he tied the knot too tight. After making more loose adjustments, "You're going to keep speaking to me? But, no one ever speaks to me again after I screwed things up for them." Xela shrugged, wincing from the pain. "Well, after spending more than a day in your lovely basement/lab/your dad's home office talking to you, I found that underneath that annoying exterior of yours lies an ethical human being with an intense devotion to protecting his home planet. Also, someone who bandages the wounded very well. And you saved my life. I'd say that makes up for your antics in a significant way." 'Besides' she thought to herself, 'I really need a friend right now. Someone who understands this world I'm trying to adjust to.' Dib turned to the door to leave (it was night around then and he was getting tired) With a 'good night.' he closed the door behind him and ascended up the stairs.

(A/N: So, what do ya think? Odd, I know, that Xela can't cry; her species lacks the lacrimal gland, which, according to my sister (who, I might add, aced anatomy) is what makes the tears one cries. Sorry this chapter is so late; I got caught up in reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Hilarious book. The movie is not as good as the book (isn't that always the case?). And recently I just finished the book "Carrie" by Stephen King. Very gory, but then what horror story isn't? Anyway, The character Alex the Hobo is inspired by my best friend's boyfriend, who is downright obsessed with Top Ramen. And he eats with chopsticks. I don't see it as an odd thing considering I eat with chopsticks to. To find a name for Xela's fighting style, I went to I tried to get a translation from the Chinese language, but couldn't. So I chose Norwegian instead. Norway Rocks. England does to. New Zealand's cool as well. JAPAN ROCKS! )

(A/N, part 2: Kamper Somen Katt is Norwegian for 'fights like a cat'. Just to let you know!)