Chapter Two

The Nightmare

: J :

It was a cold night after the battle. Everybody had to sleep on the hard, bumpy surface of Earth without cover. This made me slightly uneasy, knowing I was exposed and without my portable perpetual energy generator. How would I survive? It seemed impossible unless we went on another mission within the next week or so. And because we now had no quarters to retreat to, my hologram would have to stay on every minute, which would eat up more of my Pak's power than usual. I couldn't even shut it off for a few moments to stretch my legs, which became sore after awhile from being so tightly wrapped with mechanical tentacles.

As I lay there, covered only with a singed sheet I had found near where my tent had been, which was likely part of the tent itself, I looked up at the sky and thought about how all of this began. It was said an Irken invader was exiled to Earth as punishment, but he ended up conquering it. After three years, the Massive arrived at Earth, having conquered all other planets that were marked for conquest. The Tallest took over the place and sent the foolish little invader to an IDR, an Irken Defective Recovery facility. I had heard that he was previously put on trial before two Control Brains during an Irken Existence Evaluation, and had for a short while been found a Defective, but his Pak's information drove the Brains insane and they let him go as "the most amazing Irken ever". It was these same two Brains that referred him to the IDR instead of allowing the Tallest to kill him.

Yes, what a mess that little invader had created. Everything that was happening on Earth was his fault. If he were here right now, he could see what torture the humans were enduring because of his existence - it was horrible. My people were all over the place, watching the humans, yelling commands at them, hurting them . . . I couldn't stand it. That was why I had joined They Fight: to open my race's eyes to the wrong in what they were doing. I can understand taking control, but not completely enslaving.

My attention was diverted as I caught a glimpse of something in the sky. It was a sparkle, like a little light that flickered. It was obvious what the light was, considering the clouded atmosphere never revealed stars in the sky anymore: some foreign object entering the Earth's atmosphere. But whenever anything came through the atmosphere, it was bad, be it a meteor or Irken fighter craft.

I sat up and felt for a button on my Pak that would sound an alarm so all of They Fight would be aware of the threat. I found it, but only kept my hand close to it. I was not sure whether to push it yet. After a few moments, I could actually begin to make out the thing. It was falling straight for us, whatever it was. As it came closer and closer, my finger inched nearer and nearer to the button. At last, I could see what it was. But it looked like nothing I had ever seen before. It had a round shape with a semi-circle windshield, and it had two oval pods attached to the sides. It was pink and purple. I was sure this was not Irken tech, so I relaxed and put my hand down. This thing was no threat.

Then it hit me. This thing was going to collide with our base of operations in less than a few seconds! There was no time to evacuate everybody, and the only other way to stop it . . . I had to do it. I stood up and turned my back to the thing as my Pak shot out four large tentacle-like tubes that flew into the air right at the little ship. They attached to it, and almost instantly the force from the ship falling caused me to lose my balance and fall. But the tentacles did not let go. They pushed against it harder and harder, slowing it more and more.

My Pak was using up its strength fast, but I couldn't give up. The ship was almost to the ground now! Just push against it a little more . . . a little harder. It continued to slow, now falling no more than ten miles per hour. The tentacles pushed against it just a tad more, and then were sucked back into my Pak faster than lightening as the ship collided with the ground. There was little sound, amazingly, and the rest of They Fight was still asleep.

The ship was still intact. It was scratched somewhat, and one of the pods had a hole in it that revealed circuits and wires, but it was intact. Curious, I stood up and walked over to it. Perhaps it's empty, I thought, considering it seemed motionless. Then the windshield suddenly slid up, startling me. I backed away a few feet. Out hopped a tiny robot, one of the older SIR models. It looked like a piece of junk except for one obviously new addition, which was an energy belt. Why an outdated SIR unit would be flying a piece of trash like this was beyond me. There was no connection.

Something else moving in the ship caught my attention. I looked back at the ship, and I saw a rather short Irken climb out of it. He was in Invader attire.

I gasped. I was about to cry out that an enemy had landed, but suddenly the Invader noticed me and a robotic tentacle shot out of his Pak and covered my mouth. I tried to pry it off, but I realized he had the same Pak Tech advancements I did. We had both cheated on Vortian technology. But though we had something in common, I wasn't about to let the enemy walk into our headquarters without sounding an alert.

"Tell me where to find They Fight," he demanded. Of course I could not talk, which he realized. He smiled. Out of his Pak came another tentacle, this one with some clamping contraption at the end. It attached to my head and energy surged through me. I felt like I had stuck my finger into an electrical outlet! I was being fried, literally! But then, it stopped. My vision was doubled temporarily, spinning, but slowly cleared to show the Invader pushing buttons on a little remote. I couldn't tell what was on its screen, but it was something like a thought-reader that was displaying my mind's answer to his question.

"Ha!" he said. "You're one of them! This is They Fight's current location!"

I struggled to get the tentacles off of me. I hated being touched by Pak Tech that wasn't my own. Mentally, I thought as loud as I could, "I am Irken! I am Irken!" I continued sending the same exact message, hoping his little remote thingy would read it for him. Being Irken, I knew how to send mental messages as fast as lightening. Our Paks were operated through mental commands, which was how we were able to react faster than humans blink.

The Invader looked confused as he read the remote's screen. "You're Irken?" he asked me. "But Irkens don't join rebellion groups against their own race!"

"I am Irken!" I yelled in my mind. "I am only in disguise! I am here to infiltrate They Fight's base of operations and gather information! Trust me!"

"Nice try," he said aloud, "But the Tallest have chosen me as their spy. Your mistake in making up your little human story was that you are not here to infiltrate They Fight's base; I am."

I almost lost my balance at hearing this. The Tallest themselves had sent a spy? But why one of the shorter Irkens? Everybody knew that the taller Irkens were always more suited for secret missions than the shorter ones! But what confused me more was his voice, his appearance, his structure . . . it all seemed so familiar for some reason. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew I had seen him before.

I saw him reading the thoughts that were streaming through my mind. I suddenly realized my mistake of thinking about the matter. His eyes lost their death glare as he scrolled back over the information my mind had handed to him. He looked amazed.

"You . . . you really are Irken, aren't you?" he asked me. I nodded. "And you're really here to spy on They Fight?" This time I didn't answer. I only looked at my feet. But still, I tried to think about where I had seen this invader before. Everything about him rang a bell, but nothing was clear enough. I had probably met him somewhere before Earth was enslaved, but after four and a half years on this spinning dirt ball I was trying to save, things in my past were becoming harder and harder to remember.

Suddenly I felt the tentacles release me from their grasp, mind-reader and all. I rubbed my head where it had been clamped. Looking up from the ground, I saw his face. He appeared not quite upset with me, but altogether sad. It was strange seeing an Irken sad. I never had before, so this was a first for me.

"Then . . . my mission was a fake?" he asked me quietly. I saw his eyes shimmer with tears. "I have to leave? I have to go back to . . . them?"

"Who?" I asked, curious. He acted as if he was part of the race enslaved: broken-hearted, miserable, and just giving up on life. I wanted to know why.

He gulped. "The . . . IDR."

: Z :

I felt as if I were going to burst into tears at any second. Here I had thought for at least a week that I had been chosen by the Almighty Tallest themselves to come to Earth and take out They Fight before they could do any more damage. But the reality was that it was all a joke, and I was the person the joke had been played on. It . . . it hurt. It hurt my emotions terribly. How could they do such a horrible thing? It was . . . horrible! And now, because of them, I would be forced to return to the IDR, to Boss and Lonny and Kraak, and have to deal with their constant supervision. It was humiliating to be anywhere near them. I knew not what creatures trained them to be the way they were, but whatever had, it must be equally as horrible.

I felt panic forming inside of me. I couldn't go back, I just couldn't! It wasn't right! There was no way I was ever returning to that Hell institute! If I was to live as a person and not some pet Canfram, I had to hide! And Earth was the one place nobody would ever look. The Tallest surely believed They Fight had killed me by now, so I was safe from their eyes. But as for the other Irkens who were in charge of this planet, I was not sure. I had to take my chances.

"Irken warrior," I addressed the Irken standing before me, "you must help me! I can't go back there! Keep me here with you, and I'll assist you!"

"But I thought your mission was to spy on us," she pointed out. True, this was my mission, but I had to keep my priorities in order. I came first, everything else came second. That was how it went.

"It is," I answered, "But seeing that there is no other choice, I've changed my mind about listening to the Tallest. I have figured out that they will send me back there. They will watch my every move! You have to let me stay here, at least until . . . until . . . until I can come up with a better plan." I saw her think about it. No! She was going to turn me in! Tell one of the Irken officers about my going against the Tallest's commands. It was not fair! How could I have let this happen? How?

She reached out her hand to me as she stood up. "Fine," she answered. "Come with me. We can help each other." She was not going to expose me? I was safe here? Good news, yes, but I still wasn't sure I could trust her. After all, some humans can manipulate Irken technology. She could have been lying about being Irken. Looking into her eyes, I noticed the shadow had a dull red tint to it, a sure sign she was as Irken as I was. And if I was not Irken, it was certainly news to me. You see, Irken eyes give off a certain wavelength of light, something that can only be seen by other Irkens. I am not sure how it differs from human sight, but I do know that it shows through any method of disguise. Hologram projection, color flushing, and even primitive things such as eye lenses. I had not noticed this discoloration before because I had not paid attention, and it was dark on top of all other reasons.

I took a moment to decide on whether to trust her, then grabbed her hand and she began leading me away. Remembering something of little importance, I looked back; surely I would see what had been there before. It still was, but was not in place. It was following us, like the trust-worthy thing it should have been thirteen years ago. All these years had had little effect on the SIR unit, except for a few advances in technology such as the energy belt it now wore. It had been kept in my old Voot Cruiser from a while back, shut down until not too long ago.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked the strange Irken warrior who seemed to be familiar with this place. She looked back with a worried expression, which confused me. Why was she so worried? She was Irken, and we Irkens are known to be the mightiest of conquerors. Just one glance at her true figure would send any human running.

"I am taking you away from here," she answered. Away? "A place where we can be alone. I must ask a favor of you." There was a pause for a moment. She seemed unsure, reluctant even. But I was still stuck on the fact that she was leading me away from everything else. Then the explanation became clear. She was going to expose me after all, and she was leading me to one of the Irken bases on this planet! I immediately shook her hand from me and took a few steps back towards my ship. No way was I ever going back to the IDR, ever. I would fly into Earth's horribly hot sun first. She looked shocked.

"What's wrong?" she asked me. I lowered my head slightly as I stared at her with hatred. How could she know what was wrong? She had never been through what I had. Ten long years with half-Irkens who were such nothings that it was more like ten years in total darkness. The constant questions, no freedom, and worst of all, no means of communication whatsoever. I had tried contacting numerous persons for help, but none had listened to me. After a while I had learned that my story had been all over the news, so whoever I asked for help would deny my pleads and report my calling to IDR headquarters. From there the information was sent to Kraak, and after that . . . well, you get the point.

"'What's wrong?'" I quoted her. "'What's wrong?' You can honestly stand there knowing what you are about to do to me and just ask me WHAT'S WRONG!" I saw her give me a questioning look. She appeared as if she knew nothing, but I knew the truth. I knew it too well. She was just another Irken who had heard about me and now hated me before getting to know me. 'What's wrong' indeed. She wasn't fooling me at all. I turned from her and began walking back to the Voot, my little SIR unit automatically trailing behind me. I would leave Earth. I would leave and never return. There was nothing she could say to convince me otherwise.

"I pity you," she said as I continued on. I ignored her. "The IDR is a horrible place. People say they help correct Irken Pak defects, but in reality it's nothing but an institution to keep the defects locked up where they can't cause trouble. Intergalactic At Five did an inside story on the facilities. They're nothing but lies, is all they are. Nothing but lies. I can't even begin to imagine what you have been through. And I'm just sorry you don't trust me, because I can help you. I can turn your life in the right direction. What's more, I will listen to you. And you can tell me the horrors you have experienced since your admission to that awful place. But if it is your choice to leave, I will not argue. I will only say that you deserved better than the Tallest have handed you, Zim."

I stopped dead in my tracks. I was not sure I had heard her right. Had she just said my name? Said my name to me before I introduced myself? But . . . how had she known? What had given it away that I was the amazing Zim? Was it something I had said, something I had done, even something I was wearing? No, it must be something else . . . but what? This made less sense than Gir's idiotic mind, less sense than my being banished to Foodcourtia after Operation Impending Doom One.

"I understand you've been through a lot, Zim, what with the Irken Existence Evaluation and being sent to an IDR facility . . . it must have been horrifying."

"Yeah," I answered sluggishly, still uncomfortable talking with her, "it was. But the IDR was worse than anything I have ever been through. They watched my every move, took note of my every word, and pressed me to talk about my deepest secrets and memories. Never have I been through a nightmare like that before. But it doesn't matter now, because I'm never going back. Ever. I will kill myself with a Japser first." Japsers were the latest laser technology, created nonetheless by Earth's Japanese people. Its creators must have found the cross between the words "Japan" and "laser" most humorous for them to report that to be its official name. Even the Tallest seemed amused by the word. I never really cared for it, though. I preferred the older model, the Nicon Beam, to the Japser.

The Irken warrior's eyes seemed to twinkle in the dim light of the fire we were next to, which she had lit to keep us warm on this cold Earth night. She had taken me about a half mile from They Fight's location and set up a small, raggedy camp of her own. At first I was not sure why we had to travel so far on foot, but her story cleared things up about how well trained They Fight was and how they would possibly be awakened by the Voot's engines starting. Stopping and setting it on the ground: no, but starting: most likely.

Our Paks were connected by three five-foot cables that were transferring energy from mine to hers. She had told me of how she had been interrupted when recharging her Pak, and how a human discovered her and attempted to kill her. But I offered to drain my own Pak's energy and let her use it until we could both find an alternate energy source to charge from. Now with nothing else to do but wait until the energy transfer of thirty-four percent of what I had left completed going into her mere sixteen percent, we sat and talked of past events.

She nodded slightly at my answer. She seemed . . . different somehow. Not compared to other Irkens, but compared to how she had been not a few minutes ago. She seemed different, but I couldn't quite pick out what it was. There was something that changed somewhere when we were sitting here talking. I had said something about how the energy transfer always affects the one being drained negatively, and after that . . . something changed. She had begun asking me all sorts of things, the majority I could not remember for some strange reason. It was as if she were a totally different person.

"So what happened in there?" she asked me. "In the IDR? What did Boss and Kraak and Lonny do to you?" Wait. How did she know the names of the IDR Facility Three faculty? Surely this was no big deal; she had heard it on the news or read it in the Universal Times. A simple explanation, yes. Just ignore the awkwardness of the situation and answer the question. Not answering would be going against regulations. Regulations? Regulations of what? Wait . . . this was all becoming very confusing. I suddenly was thinking about things I had no knowledge of whatsoever.

"They sat me down in this little room a long time ago," I began, telling the story of a certain event in hopes of returning things to normal, "and asked me what my name was. This was the first day I was there. I told them my name was Penny for some reason, and they all smiled at me. I remember that Jewel handed me a package with the name "Penny" on it, and I opened it to find it was filled with a . . . hovery liquid thing, like what water looks like in zero gravity. It had numbers in it. The numbers read off '4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42'. It was some sort of secret code.

"But then there was a bright flash of light, and I was suddenly stripped of any clothing including my Pak, and kept in a glass containment time stasis field filled with preservative liquids. I could still see my captors moving, but I could only barely hear them. They were talking about something that had to do with parasitic Pak Tech worms that crawled into your skin and burrowed through your veins until they reached the Pak, then crawled through the circuitry and ate through wires until the entire thing fell to pieces. But if they stayed in you, you still lived, and if they were flushed out by chemicals that only Irken scientists have access to, you will die.

"I looked at my arms and saw that thin, white lines were coming from them, waving in the liquid as I moved. I realized that I was infected with the parasite worm things! But Jewel and Boss had my Pak, so I could see, so it didn't make sense about why the worms wanted me anyway." I took a pause and my eyes became wide, realizing I was talking insanely about events that had never happened, nor could ever happen. They defied all that Irken stood for! Parasitic worms, hovering water bubbles . . . Penny and Jewel . . . what was I talking about?

"Go on," the Irken warrior urged, her voice taking on a eerie tone. "Tell me everything. Tell me all of your secrets. I promise, I won't tell anybody. It will just be between you . . . and . . . me." No. This wasn't happening. There was no way. Suddenly I saw her holographic disguise fade away, revealing who she really was. She . . . she was Boss! She had tracked me here somehow, and she had been talking with me! She was connected to me by our Paks! I had to get out of here!

"I WON'T GO BACK!" I cried. I stood up and began yanking at the cables that hooked us together. I had to escape! But for some reason, they were stuck. They wouldn't budge! I yelled out thought commands at my Pak as loud and fast as I could, but it was doing nothing! Suddenly, Boss began laughing. She was just laughing evilly as I struggled to get the cords away from me. I was shaking with fear now. What was happening?

Cords came from my Pak and began wrapping around me, around my waist, around my chest . . . around my neck! They were choking me! I had to escape! As quickly as I could, with the remainder of my strength, I ripped my Pak from me and began running off towards my Voot. I could escape in it. I could get away from here! I would not go back to the IDR!
I tripped. I felt a hand around my leg. I looked back at Boss, whose arm had somehow extended past its length and caught me by the ankle. She was still laughing. Behind her rose a dark figure; I couldn't quite tell what it was yet. I tried to run, but my legs were locked in their position. Boss was draining me of what little energy I had left! And the figure behind her was rising high above her head. Panicking more than ever, I bit down on her hand, but it did nothing. Suddenly the figure behind her became visible, and it was a horrible, twisted, scarred and bleeding face. A face that would be stuck in my mind for all eternity. I knew not who it was, but I did know that for the small amount of time I saw it, I screamed.

I was screaming my head off as I sat up. I head tears in my eyes. After a moment or two, I quieted, thinking over what had happened. I looked up at the sky, and saw it was still the black, cloud-covered sky I had seen since I arrived. I looked to my side, and saw Gir sitting by the fire, holding a twig with two marshmallows on it. Then, I felt the cables coming from my Pak. Frightened, I slowly turned my head around to see what they were connected to. Slowly . . . slowly . . .

"Zim, are you okay?" the Irken warrior asked me, her disguise still on. She was still sitting five feet away from me, still proud yet innocent. She looked concerned and slightly scared as her eyes made contact with mine. I was sure that things were back to normal. But I didn't understand what had happened. How had things become so distorted? How had all of those horrible visions made their way into my reality? But what really concerned me was: why had it happened? Perhaps I truly did belong in the IDR if I felt so strongly that the events were real. Perhaps I was literally insane.

"I . . . I don't know," I confessed. Tears whelped up in my eyes and began spilling over to my face. I felt a shiver throughout my entire body and my breathing became choppy. I believed I was crying, but I was not quite sure. It had been a long time since I had cried. I knew why I was upset, and it was because of the scare I had gotten from whatever had just happened. It was as if none of it had been real now; that it was all some form of holographics translated into brainwave patterns. It spooked me a little.

"You were laying down for almost half an hour," she explained to me, "and not moving. Then you began muttering something about 'escaping', and 'not wanting to go back', and then you started screaming. And now, you're sitting up again, talking to me. It was almost like you were asleep, like a human." Asleep? Asleep? Something rang a bell in my head about being asleep. But I couldn't put my finger on it. Something to do with . . . the Dib! Yes, I remembered now! I had encoded my Pak to set a sleep mode almost a year after I first landed on Earth just to see what it was like. And it was programmed to activate only once, but the power drain must have accidentally turned it on. I knew what had happened now! I had fallen asleep, and I had . . . dreamed.

"Dreams . . . are horribly real," I said aloud with no reason other than to assure myself that I was now awake, and back to reality. I felt more tears fill my eyes at the realization that it was all a hideous dream. I even understood the point at which it began. My sleep mode must have activated seconds after I had stated that energy transfers always affect the one being drained negatively. Well, I guess this proves my statement true.

"Dreams?" the Irken warrior asked me. "How would you know anything about dreams? Irkens can't sleep, so Irkens can't dream. I'm beginning to question your sanity, Zim." I almost laughed. Of course she would never understand what I was talking about! My sleep program was one-of-a-kind; no Irken had ever experienced its effects except me, and I just now got a glimpse at what it was really capable of. I really had done an outstanding job on it. The realism of it all was so frightening . . . yet it was already very fuzzy to me what all had happened in the dream. But suddenly, my mind recovered one image all too clearly: that face.

That horrible, bloody face at the end of the dream. It filled me with a terrible sense of death. I still did not understand who it was, but that didn't matter. The face was the way it was, and its picture was painted onto my memory forever. I suddenly didn't feel very well at thinking about the image. It felt like my insides were pulsing with a very unpleasing rhythm, almost to the beating of my heart.

"It's a long story," I answered her. "Twelve years ago I created a sleep program for myself, and the power drain just now turned it on. I . . . think I had a dream. A horrible dream. It was worse than anything I have ever experienced in my life; even worse than the IDR."

"I believe on Earth the humans call that a 'nightmare'," she pointed out. Yes, a nightmare it was indeed. But it was over now. Things were back to normal. Hopefully I would never have to see that face again. Ever. And I would make sure of it tomorrow, when I would completely remove the sleep program from my Pak Tech inventory. That tiny microchip that I had worked so hard to complete. But it was too dangerous for the Irken mind; our race simply wasn't ready for this kind of reality simulation yet. Once I removed it, I would use my lasers to destroy it.

"I have a question for you," I began. She listened closely. After clearing my throat, I asked, "What is a 'Japser'?"

-----

Author Notes:

Ah, yes, dreams can be quite frightening when you've never experienced one. But some people think that dreams are based on real events and emotions, and even can tell the future. What do you think Zim's dream is trying to tell him? We sure know he has a fear of the IDR, and Boss, and has a few issues with trust. But I do wonder about that face he saw . . . could it be important?

That little story he told in his dream, about being in a glass containment stasis field chamber of some kind, is important much farther into the story, as is the name Jewel, so keep those in mind when reading.