Disclaimer: I don't own IZ.

A/N: I had an idea in my head, so I wrote it. I don't know where it would lead me, but I will appreciate if you'll tell me what did you think.

Chapter one: the beginning of the endless night

She walked slowly, pulling her coat closer to her body with almost every step. The night was cold; its stop raining only an hour ago, and the sidewalk was covered with puddles and mud.

She just had to get out, hoping that the fresh cold air and will help her to calm down a little bit. It was impossible to be around the house these days, especially at nights. There were always shouting and arguing, she could not stand it anymore.

There was too tense in the air, no one responded when she went out, she could not tell if anyone even noticed.

She glanced at the skies. They were covered by thick, gray clouds; she could not see the moon. It was certainly not a good sign.

Gaz always liked those cloudy nights, when no one was outside to bother her. Maybe, if she was living in one of those big cities, she would not have nights as this one. However, in this little town, people slept at nights a afraid of the rain. She was grateful about that. She did not like the rain, though. When it rain, she was always getting wet.

Gaz stopped in front of giant puddle. She looked down at her reflection. She saw in the puddle a glum thirteen years old girl. The girl had squinted, brown eyes, purple hair and pale skin. Gaz shrugged and step on her reflection. The girl there looked smart, but right now Gaz felt completely stupid. She ran out to the cold night, forgot to take any precautions, and started walking without knowing where.

She leaned against a gray, rough wall of the nearest building. She shivered, but she suspected that it had nothing to do with the cold. She kicked a little stone. A grown man who passed near her mumbled something about 'kids staying out late' and 'uncaring parents'. She did not care. People always had commands on her look and behavior, most of them unpleasant. She gave a dirty look behind his back as he walked away. She felt like something was stuck in her throat, as if she ate one of those horrible breakfast chunks and could not swallow.

She felt sick.

Gaz clenched her mouth and ran towards the nearest alley

After vomiting pretty much anything she ate today into a garbage can, Gaz's mind cleared a bit. She got to the conclusion her actions were stupid. She acted like one of those pathetic, attention- begging teenagers, whom she loathed.

And she was only thirteen.

'What an achievement' she thought bitterly. 'Being that way by now? I should get an award for it…'

A sorrow smirk spread on her face.

"But I wonder… do I have a real reason to act like this?'

The answer was instant in her mind.

'Of course not'

It was no secret that the famous Membrane Empire is having some hard times now.

It started with this new, brilliant scientist named professor Zeki. He worked once with the professor, but had been fired by him for being too creative. Apparently, his ideas were better than pr. Membrane's, which made him, feel threatened by Zeki's genius. Therefore, he fired him, as absurd as it did sound, with no actual reason. The professor felt safe once again, and everything was supposed to go back to normal…

WRONG

Zeki was furious with the professor. He was no stupid, and knew why he was really fired. Zeki decided not to give up yet.

Few months later, about two hundreds brand new, eye-catching, yellow posters covered the walls of the city; Pr. Zeki's MMM!

No one had an idea what is MMM, and most of the people did not knew who "Pr. Zeki" is, but around this time, professor Membrane began to look a little ill.

It turned out Zeki opened a new company, and invented something much more impressive than the professor "Super Toast". He invented the "Marvelous Macaroni Maker", or as he called it, the MMM.

"Not only the MMM make the body stronger, cure cancer and improve you memory" said the beaming, smiling person on the MMM TV commercial. "It's also help you dance and give you superpowers!"

It is true the commercial was idiotic, but it was all it takes to convince the ordinary, brainless people of Earth.

So what has happened?

Zeki's company had turned successful with every MMM that was sold, while the Membrane Empire was going down.

Really down.

Zeki now was talking to the world leaders. Zeki now won all the awards and all the money. However, the last straw was when Zeki got his own TV show- "Zeki's Science Fun Hour".

It did not matter to Gaz and Dib, of course, the government still paid the professor for his great donation to the world, but professor Membrane was awfully affected.

He was at home more than usual, but in his lab, working constantly on… whatever he did. He was receiving more phone calls, and yell in most of them too. Then he was throwing the receiver back, (in fact' he almost broke her once), and mattering curses and swears while walking back to his lab. And most importantly: when someone dared to disturb him, his reactions were getting angrier and angrier.

Gaz never thought negative of her father. He was not getting much on her way, mostly was busy, and she appreciate that. She ignored the world around her, and he maybe did not exactly ignored her, but close enough. Now, even when her head was in a garbage can, she still could not.

And she knew Dib was the same.

Gaz handled the new situation quite well, for her opinion. She was smart enough to know that extreme actions like cutting her wrists or trying to commit suicide will lead nowhere. Only cowards tried to die; only cowards hurt themselves instead of facing their problems.

She was no coward.

Tonight, things were getting worse.

Dib and the professor were fighting a lot recently. Tonight, Dib was trying to make professor Membrane to see why he is failing.

"Look at this!" he waved a little Membrane puppet in front of the professor face. "Look! What this stuff have to do with your science?"

"They are my puppets-!"

"You didn't answer my question!" cut him Dib sharply.

Gaz sat on the couch and played her Gameslave 2. It became routine in her life, watching her brother and father arguing. She didn't knew what happened, but in some phase of the argument, (which, by the way, was getting louder and louder), she stood up before him and said "Dad, Dib's right"

What happened after that was so sudden and surprising she could not predict it. The professor clenched-fist hit her stomach so hard she fell on the floor. It hurt… in more then one way.

"NO ONE GAVE YOU THE PREMITION TO INTERFUR IN OUR ARGUMENT! SO BE QUIET!"

Actually, he said something much more vulgar, but Gaz did not wish to repeat it. Even not in her mind.

Dib stood, frozen, his eyes wide opened. After a moment or so of stunned glancing, he yelled "YOU ARE A MONSTER!"

In that moment, she got back to her feet and went out. They did not notice, they just kept arguing.

Gaz did not want to go back, not yet. She did not wanted to run away either. She decided that the best thing to do is to take a little walk in the town, until it was late enough. She could sneak in later. She needed time to think.

Gaz did not hate her father, certainly not, she just lost any sort of respect she had for him in this night. She was shocked with his reaction. Professor Membrane was always a calm and peaceful man; he never hurt her in any way- physical or mental. Even though her stomach still hurt, she did not care; it was not the problem. If only she took her Game Slave 2 before running pointlessly outside, he was the only thing that distracts her mind from this stupid world…

Well, no matter what has happened. People do crazy things when they are angry. Dib is the perfect example for that. One thing is for sure: No matter how much it harmed her, how much it confused her, how much it hurt her…

She will not let a tear come out of her eyes. Never. She did not even want to cry.

Only whiners cry, and babies.

And she is neither of them.

A/N: Please don't flame, even if you thought it was the worst fic ever. Thank you for reading it, even if you didn't like it.