Chapter Seven

It's Called Love

: J :

Everything was silent. The full moon shown brightly in the sky, creating shadows that would normally only be visible in the day. I was standing watch to make sure nobody could sneak up on us and attack. We had had enough battles for this week, yet not near enough raids. We had been left with only twenty-three soldiers, and what did we have to show for the loss? A few scratched up pieces of cloth for tents and bloodstains on our clothes. No technology, no weapons . . . only losses.

I hoped Zim was okay. I had inserted the Overrider chip into his Pak to open his eyes to the true meaning of life, but I hadn't heard from him since sunset. The moon was already in the middle of the sky. I had checked on him a couple of times, but he was only sitting where he had been when I left him, wrapped in my jacket. He had hardly moved at all. I was beginning to worry about him. But whatever he was thinking about, I knew it had to be something significant at least. The Overrider chip neutralized the emotion control, meaning he was now able to feel and think for himself – at least, more than he used to. He had always been unique, and now what made him unique could show. Hopefully I hadn't done any damage, though . . .

Suddenly I heard something. I turned around fast and shined my flashlight towards the sound. I jumped at the sight of something with large, reddish-pink eyes! . . . Zim! Goodness, he had scared me. But my smile at seeing my error vanished when I saw his expression. He was so sad, and so quiet. He was looking at the ground as he walked over to me. I wondered what had been on his mind lately.

"Zim . . .?" I whispered, hoping he would answer. He didn't. What was wrong with him? Was he still not feeling well because of the whole "water incident"? Or was it something more? Perhaps he was merely cold. It was winter, after all. But nobody kept track of the seasons or days anymore. Nobody cared. As far as we all knew, it could be the middle of summer. As for the cold weather . . . well, there was no sunshine any more, either.

Zim approached me quietly. He was looking at the ground, eyes half closed. I could see now that he had tears in his eyes as well. What happened next was something I would never have expected. Zim grabbed the corners of my holographic shirt and held them tight, burying his face into my torso. He was crying . . . What had I done? Why was he so upset?

"It's okay, Zim," I comforted, gently stroking his antennae, which were pinned to the back of his head. I slowly let myself slip down to his level on my knees so I could hold him close to my heart. Whatever had happened, I knew the best thing I could do for him was let him know everything was all right. I was here for him, and I always would be. No matter what.

"It's okay."

: Z :

How could I have been so blind for so long? How could I not see all that there was to be seen? It was as if I suddenly had twelve senses instead of the standard seven. There was something there that hadn't been there before, but I still couldn't quite place what it was. It was something wonderful, yet at the same time horrible. Something I couldn't describe. But I knew if I didn't have Jiss here to explain what was going on, then I would be left in the dark – left to figure everything out on my own. Thankfully, she had the time to spare to talk with me at least an hour or two every day. All the other time, she was training. But I wasn't ready to join her, so I only watched from a distance. I enjoyed watching her do such amazing, incredible things . . . like walking on water, and using atomic energy spheres that she made appear out of thin air.

But today was more special than other days. Today, I was going to ask her what the emotion was that I felt. It was too hard to explain, but perhaps that was all she needed to know to tell me what it was. Whatever it was, I knew she was somehow directly associated with it. Perhaps that was only because she was the one who inserted the Overrider chip into my Pak, but then again, perhaps it was something more.

I often thought about the two of us being together for some reason. And I enjoyed the daydreams very much. When I should have been paying attention to a lesson Dib was giving, I had been staring off into the clouds thinking of her. It was so strange, how I had been with her for a while but never noticed her physical beauty. Her hologram was the most amazing, beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. I longed to know what she really looked like . . .

I never did remove the sleep program I designed. I never did destroy it as I said I would. Last night when I was lying on the ground looking up at the stars, I must have fallen asleep; I began dreaming. I suddenly was back on Irk in that dark tunnel place. Jiss was there as well, as was Lonny, Jewel, and Kan. Only, it was not the same as the memory chip had displayed. I was having trouble recalling all of the important details, but I did know that, for the time she and I were alone together, Jiss did something strange that made no sense at all.

As the dream went, I was sitting on the ground, as was she, and she leaned close to me and our lips touched for a moment. Then she leaned back again and did nothing more. I also recalled the even stranger portion of the dream: I stuck my tongue out and it somehow wrapped all the way around her, causing her to levitate and glow bright blue. That was about when the dream cut off, because I awoke to a piercing alarm that always reminded They Fight it was sunrise and it was time to begin training. Dreams are very weird things . . .

Currently, I was sitting atop one of the large rocks about fifty or so meters from the edge of the water, watching seven members of They Fight trying to work the Pak Tech trick Jiss had. A couple of them had gotten a few feet without falling in. How? I didn't know. They didn't have Paks; they had only these small, crystal cubes strapped around their waste like a belt. Jiss was among them, and she had somehow managed to walk on top of the water . . . on her hands. She had made it all the way to the other side and back without getting one drop on her. She was so incredible.

Rather bored, I suppose, I sighed and let my antennae fall to the sides of my head. But I still watched Jiss perform and show off with superior grace and agility, enjoying witnessing her fearless, awe-striking talent. True: her hologram was what I saw doing all this, but also true was that the hologram followed her exact movements down to the tiniest twitch. She was the one in charge of it.

She was beautiful. Or, at least, her hologram was. But I believed that truly, deep down in her heart, she was beautiful as well. And not only her appearance, but also her personality, physical talent, and intellect. She knew just how to work her Pak better than any Irken alive, which combined both her mental and physical abilities. It had been proven that Irkens who could control their Paks with such excellence as her were superior even to the Tallest. Or . . . at least it should have been. Because she thought much more logically than Tallest Red and Purple combined. Not that I would have enough courage to say that to their faces, or even hers . . .

I couldn't wait to talk to her later, during the mid-day break.

-----

"So, Zim, what do you want to ask me about?" It was mid-day. The sun was high above us behind the smog, making our pale shadows more visible than usual. We were sitting before each other, in the sand near the pond. The shimmering water reflected the dulled sun's ultraviolet rays and colors of the gray sky back into space at all angles. I had learned to like that pond, even though I almost drowned in it. I wasn't completely sure why I liked it so much; I just did. I found it beautiful.

For a moment it was as if I had not heard her; the way I stared at the shimmering ripples created by a slight breeze that swept past us -providing more discomfort than was necessary on a painfully cold day such as this- kept me entranced. Unpredictable was the Earth's weather now, due to the constantly changing amount of chemicals in the intoxicated air. It could possibly be the middle of summer, for all I knew. Of course, Jiss claimed it was winter, and that was why it was cold. I believed her.

"I . . . I just wanted to ask you about something," I started, my words stumbling over each other. I felt so stupid! I couldn't just say what I wanted to say. Why not? I had talked with Jiss so many times before without having any trouble. Now . . . it was like she was a different person. It was like if I didn't say everything absolutely perfectly, then it wasn't good enough for her. I had to be perfect for her - I just had to be! Now come on, Zim, you can say this. Just ask her what she did to you. Ask her about the new feelings. Ask her why you think she is so pretty all of a sudden.

There was a pause as she seemed to think this over. She looked at me with her beautiful holographic eyes. They were the perfect shade of sky blue . . .

". . . Yes?" she pushed, obviously waiting for me to say more. But how could I? This was so hard. Just say something, Zim. Say something! I had to say something. But what? 'Jiss, tell me why I think about you? Oh and by the way, your eyes are pretty.' I am such an idiot. I . . . I . . . wait. No, I am not! Have I forgotten all that I have done in the past? I've wrestled many creatures ten times my size to the ground to retrieve the smallest of objects. I have had to use my scientifical intellect to devise blueprints and create things no human could ever even think up. I have done the impossible, survived death, and lived through drowning. I could talk to one person easily! There was nothing hard about talking at all.

I looked Jiss right in the eyes and gulped. Perhaps talking was its own challenge when trying to be done right. This was indeed harder than I had ever thought possible. Merely talking had become one of the hardest tasks in Universe Three Seven Three. Or any of the Universes, for that matter. As I sat in front of her and thought about how to approach the subject, I felt a few beads of sweat slide down my skin, around my eyes and past my lips until they dripped off my chin and fell to the ground. I felt some sort of strange feeling bubbling in my stomach. Not nausea, as I would have guessed before, but something else. Something different. It was not exactly painful or in any way harmful, but it was more . . . rather enjoyable, actually.

"You . . . you did something to my Pak the other day, and I . . . I feel different. There's this emotion, but I can't place what it is. And it . . . um, you . . . me . . ." My words were completely scrambled. I was making a fool of myself, it seemed. I kept telling my brain what to say, but out of my mouth came something different. My voice seemed to have a mind of its own. And the feeling in my stomach had magnified itself. There was something wrong with me! That had to be it. The feeling was something related to some sort of parasite, or disease that came from Earth's hideous wilderness life. I must have fallen ill without knowing it. I was sick! I was sick!

"Zim, are you okay?" Jiss asked me, a slightly concerned expression on her face. "You look a little nauseous. Are you sure you're completely recovered from inhaling the water?" Frankly, no I was not. I felt horrible. But it wasn't the same as the first couple of days after I had been rescued from the pond. It wasn't exactly worse, either, but it definitely wasn't better. It was just . . . different. What was I going to say? How was I going to say it? Was she going to like the way I said it, or laugh at me? If she laughed at me, I would never be the same. There had to be something I could do. Think, Zim. Think! My mind was blank. No ideas at all. Only Jiss . . .

"Yes," I answered bluntly, still trying to figure out what to say. "I think so. Jiss, I wanted to ask you . . . well, I . . ." I gulped again. 'Nervous' was the word! I felt nervous. But never had I felt so nervous that my stomach felt this way before. It was scary. Maybe I really was sick! Maybe the med team needed to recheck the damage that had been done to my delicate interns. There must be something seriously wrong. Something horribly wrong. I couldn't do this! Talk to Jiss though I am sick, but I am not sure, and the new emotion is strange and the Pak Tech she inserted has something to do with this . . .

I started blabbing at five thousand miles per hour.

"I want to know what the strange new emotion is that I feel now also it is somehow associated with you and I believe I am sick because my stomach hurts but your eyes are beautiful what did you do to my Pak the other day and I think I am going to vomit . . .?" I started coughing as she stared at me questioningly. I turned around quickly and threw up on the sand behind me. What was wrong with me? I truly was sick, wasn't I? Something was horribly wrong here. Something was wrong.

I was pretty sure Jiss didn't say anything while I had my back turned to her. Even if she had, I wouldn't have been able to hear her; her voice would have been drowned out by the noises of vomit splattering against sand, accompanied by my somewhat vocal cries in-between contractions. I had my antennae pinned to the back of my head instinctively, as always happens when Irkens are sick to their stomachs. I hated this so much I could not even begin to describe how much I despised it. And the horrible feeling I felt aside from being sick . . . I didn't recognize it, but it was so horrible that I just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere in the dark and never come out to show my face to Jiss ever again. Ever.

What had I done? Would she think of me the same? What exactly had I said while talking so fast that I even had trouble understanding myself, and the use of any grammatical punctuation in the English language would have been deleted if my statement had been written down? I couldn't recall exactly. Had I said what I wanted? Had I asked what I needed? Had all been made clear, or was she still waiting for me to further explain? Why was I thinking so many questions at once? What was wrong with me? What was wrong with me!

I took a deep breath, able to breathe once again. I turned back around to see Jiss smiling at me kindly. She was staring into my eyes not unlike I had stared into her own minutes earlier. How could she look at me this way when I had just blurted whatever I had said to her talking a million kilometers per hour, and then turned around and got sick? If I were her, I would want nothing more to do with me. I hated myself. I was so . . . so . . . I don't know! What word do they have to describe what I was feeling? I was upset, but I was happy because I liked Jiss, but I felt like an idiot and a fool, but I was - I am so confused.

"Zim," said Jiss, stretching out my name while staring at me with a peaceful, happy expression. She was smiling, still. Why . . .? "What I gave you the other day is the best gift anyone could ever receive. What you are feeling is the most simple, most complicated thing in any Universe anywhere. Nobody can describe it completely. On Earth, the humans often refer to it as love." Love? I thought I was incapable of love. "But I would say that after that little incident you are more embarrassed than amorous at the moment. But don't be upset with yourself! You'll adjust. It's new to you right now. It's a little overwhelming, which is why you got sick. You're not used to having to deal with so many things at once."

"So I'm not infected with an illness . . .?"

Jiss laughed a little bit at my oblivion. Just when I was about to question her, she put her arm around me and looked me straight in the eyes. The way she was looking at me was so amazing. It was so beautiful. I had never seen anybody look at me this way before. The tiny sparkling white dots of reflected light that were in both her pupils, the pale indigo blue of her iris, her perfect eyelids slid halfway over her actual eyes . . . so amazing. She was so beautiful. Wow . . .

"No; you're just fine," Jiss answered me. Thank the Tallest I was okay. I noticed she had paused and taken her arm off me as she thought of what to say to me. Hopefully she was going to say she liked me. I sure liked her. Had she said I loved her? That was something I had never heard about: an Irken in love. Well, I guess there is a first time for everything in the universe. Me being in love was just another one.

"Do you like flowers?"

"Heh?" I asked, my mind off whatever she had been talking about. Had she been talking about anything? I didn't think so. If she had, I hadn't heard her. But if she had been talking about anything, I was sure it was something wonderful. She always talked about things wonderful. She was wonderful. And she had such moral to everything she said when talking kindly to me the way she did . . .

"I like flowers," said Jiss. She slowly gestured to the area surrounding us. Off in the distance I noticed many tiny flowers blooming, the majority of them around the pond area. And much father, past some of the trees in the forest, I saw what appeared to be a flower that was resting on a very tall tree. It was hard to make out, though, because of the distance. Plus, the tree was surrounded by fog, as was everything these days, making everything that was far away seem to be encased in a blanket of clouds. Yes, I agreed with her; Earth's plant life was very fascinating.

"You see that tall tree way over there?" she asked. I nodded in response. "At the top of that tree is a flower called the Aurora Orchid. I've wanted to see it up close ever since I found out we were near its location. And soon, we will be even closer. But as hard as everybody everywhere has tried, reaching that flower is simply impossible. I have even tried myself, and failed." She sighed and stared off at the flower atop the tall tree, as did I. I thought about the matter. Jiss liked flowers, and she wished to see the Aurora Orchid up close to analyze it further. Nobody had been able to reach it before . . . and even she had failed trying . . .

The perfect way to gain back my dignity after looking like an idiot in front of her! She wanted the flower, and I apparently loved her . . . yes, it was so simple. All I had to do to earn her love was get that flower for her. Unless she already loved me . . . no, no, even if she did . . . she wanted an Aurora Orchid, and I was going to get one for her. I would be willing to die trying!

-----

Author Notes:

Uh, normally I'd give you all a dramatic "DUN DUN DUUUNN!", but the situation doesn't call for one. It's just a nice doodly little thought in the Irken's head. It's not like Zim's smart enough or talented enough to reach that stupid flower.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. I really appreciate it. I'd like more, if that would be possible, so I know what you want to improve about my writing. Heh . . . I like adding humor in my story. There's not a lot, but the little that there IS . . . I really cherish it. It gives the story character, plus a little comic relief, considering this is a drama.

Random quote: "The best way to laugh when reading a drama book is to go through and realize how the author tried to make it dramatic."

Example: "Oh, John, I love you . . . but I cannot love you, because you slept with Lila."

"Oh, Marsha! Please, dear, forgive me . . ."

"No. It's . . . too late for that."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! XP