A.N. thanks to Darkarise, TikTac (Ooo, that is creepy. . . I once went to the playground, and this guy was in his jeep, just watching me the whole time, and when I ran home, he drove away), Suicidal RuBBerDuckie (technically, Zim would count asa mean person (or Irken), right? heh heh, oh well), Missy Lynne, InvaderCorren, Rahh Gumba Foo (haha, don't worry, she's not actually in it; and thanks), miao-chan (Shloonk rocks! XP), and Mr. Girl for dem lovely reviews! Much love people!

Let it be known that I wrote the song in dis chapter! Because I'm just awesome like that!

Chapter eight- Drowning

"Hey Shloonk. . . Shloonktapooxis, are you awake. . .?"

The small cone is out cold. Tak grins in satisfaction. She faces away from the opening of her cell, and with the aid of her spider leg, she fumbles with the lock. It takes a few minutes, but finally, the cage door swings open, and she falls backwards. She lands inches away from the sleeping Shloonktapooxis, but he doesn't stir. Holding in a deep breath, she gently lifts him and places him in the cage, then lightly pushes the door. With a soft click it closes and locks.

Tak steps away as quietly as possible, then glances down the hallway. No one else is there. She turns on her holographic disguise. No longer is she disguised as a short, blue-haired teen; she's modified it so she appears as a Vortian (she would've made it so she looked like Shloonk, but considering his race has no ligaments, she imagines it would be difficult to pass herself as his kind).

Cautiously, she begins to walk away from the cage, and then, when she's made it about halfway down the hall, she hears a voice, and jumps.

". . .well, what if we baked a really big pie and. . ."

". . .Fool! What good would the pie do. . .?"

Tak can't make out the first voice, but the second one is definately Lard Nar. They're coming in the hallway, and Tak almost panics and hides, but then she remembers her disguise. So she freezes and stares ahead blankly until Lard Nar and his companion come into view, and then they freeze as well.

"Who are you?" Lard Nar demands.

"Um. . ." Tak begins, her mind racing. A random memory of her old roommate from Irk pauses in her brain for a second, so she blurts, "I'm Pleecy," then looks around unsurely. If she's going to steal the name, she might as well steal the personality. "Um, don't you remember me, Lard Nar?"

"Huh?" he responds brilliantly.

Although in her mind she's repulsed by the action, she jumps forward frantically and latches onto Lard Nar, pulling his face into her chest.

"Spleenk!" Lard Nar shouts to the other alien, although his voice is muffled, "Get this girl away from me! Mmph!"

Tak tightens her hold on his head, pressing him against her so roughly, he's practically suffocating. And it's no more comfortable for Tak herself, but that's in more of a moral sense.

So she pushes Lard Nar back, although her hands are firmly gripping his arms, and says as dramatically as she can, "Lard Nar! How could you! Um, after. . .after all that we've been through!"

"What have we been through?"
"Don't you. . .uh, don't you remember that amazing night we had on. . .Planet Spotch?"

"I've never been to Planet Spotch."

"D-did I say 'Spotch'. . .? I meant 'Vort'. . .um, our home planet! Don't you remember?"

Lard Nar's eyes widen in somewhat of a shock.

"I. . .I do!" he says. "You're that girl from the Explosive Bubbles factory, right?"

"Yes! Yes I am!" Tak lies, grateful for an excuse. "I came here because I couldn't stop thinking about you Lard Nar, you were just so. . . good. . .that night. . . I had to see you. . ."

She is strongly resisting the urge to throw up right now.

Lard Nar scratches the back of his head, blushing, but with a smile.

"Um, yeah," he says bashfully. "So were you. . ."

Tak tries her hardest to conceal her mortification, and she forces a smile. She grabs Lard Nar's hand, but can't think of anything else to say.

Luckily, Spleenk speaks.

"Ahhhh. . .should I leave you two alone?"

Without meaning to, Tak stiffens, with a quick thought of 'Oh God, no. . .'.

Lard Nar appears to have been brought back from his bashful state into his usual mood.

"No, no Spleenk," he says, "we're here to interrogate the Irken, remember?"

Tak releases his hand and says sweetly, "Lard Nar, could I possibly wait for you in the controls room? I dropped off some of my belongings in there, I'd like to get them."

"Sure."

"Um, I forgot which direction the room's in. . ."

"Down this hall, first room on the left."

Tak nods a thanks, then runs down the hall quickly, before Lard Nar and Spleenk discover her cage which now holds Shloonk.

The controls room is occupied by several members of the egg head race, and Tak enters with a confident smirk.

"Clear out," she says, "Lard Nar's put me in charge of piloting; we're heading in a new direction."

Clox won't stop shaking. That's the only thing. Everything else in the room is completely still, completely silent. Even Gir, surprisingly enough.

They're all staring at the floor sadly. Then Kacer clears her throat. She stands up from the couch and says as cheerfully as she can, "Hey, you guys wanna watch a movie?"

Pin, Clox, Gir and Mimi all glance up at her for a moment, then they look back to the floor, shaking their heads.

"We can play a game then! Like, hide-and-seek."

They shake their heads.

"We can cook dinner."

Shake their heads.

"Rearrange the furniture?"

Shake heads.

"Karaoke?"

As everyone beside her continues to shake their heads, Pin looks up in slight interest.

"I have," she begins softly, " a karaoke machine in my room."

"Great!" Kacer says with a relieved smile. "Go get it!"

Pin salutes, then runs from the room. Minutes later, she returns with a karaoke machine. Kacer helps her set it up in the front of the room, and then the two huddle over, looking through a list of possible songs.

Gir, Mimi and Clox survey them for a few moments, then Gir jumps up and rushes over.

"I wanna sing this song!" he says, pointing to the list.

As he, Kacer and Pin debate over different songs, Clox looks to Mimi. Then he grabs her hand, and they join everyone. Clox jumps up to see the list. And then he points.

"This one," he says.

Kacer looks to the selected song and smiles.

"Do we all agree on that one?" she asks everyone.

They all nod eagerly and so the song begins.

To open up

to break the night

I used to dream about flying people

It's kinda sick

it's kinda funny

but this lie was pretty nice

it was fun pretending

Lalalala we all fall

Lalalala time to go away now

Gir begins to dance in his typical fashion, and Clox starts to laugh and joins him. Pin and Kacer just sing louder.

Sick and floating

everytime

I'll walk through life

without a helmet

only because I don't know better

Sick and crying

every lie

I'll run through light

without a blindfold

only because

only because

Kacer hears a tap. It's not from the karaoke machine, or even Gir, Clox and Mimi dancing against the floor. It's the tapping of glass. The window.

The whole world is falling down

I guess I'll miss the insanity

how stupid to think it would last forever

now it's an unlocked security

Lalalala we all fall

Lalalala time to go away now

She leaves the song to Pin, who's so into the music, she hasn't even noticed Kacer's put her mic down.

Kacer walks to the door, the tapping continuing in a steady beat.

Sick and floating

everytime

I'll walk through life

without a helmet

only because I don't know better

Sick and crying

every lie

I'll run through light

without a blindfold

only because

only because

She opens the door.

It's Gaz.

"Hey," Kacer says, her stomach sinking in anxiety.

"I'm only here to protect Dib if you wanna slap him again. Either that, or I'll just watch. It might be funnier then it sounds."

"Gaz, what are you talking about?"

"Hey Kacer. . ."

This came from Dib. He emerges from behind his sister, his head hung low, but still glancing up at Kacer.

"I kinda have to tell you something," he says.

Only becaus I'm crazy

only because I might just be dreaming

So when I wake up

yeah, when I wake up

the blindfold won't be real

Lalalala. . .

"Clox, what are you doing?"

His son just barely poked his head from under the bed, and then mutterd softly, "M-m-monster. . ."

"Where?" Zim asked, confused.

Clox just pointed a shaking finger toward his closet.

"I-i-it told me that-that it w-wouldn't eat me, if I. . .uh. . .made it a s-sammich. . . on'y-on'y, I dun know what kinda sammiches m-monsters like. . ."

Zim just grabbed Clox by the wrist, and pulled him out from under the bed; the second he did, Clox latched onto his head, trembling furiously.

"I-i-i-it's gonna eat me!" he shrieked.

Although Zim felt tempted to soothe his son's pain in a compassionate sense, he just said in a stern voice, "Clox. You are being foolish! There are no closet monsters that could make it into my mighty base!"

And with that, he stomped over to the closet, despite Clox's hysterical protests, he proceeded to open it. . . but stopped the instant he heard a disturbingly low growl say, "Make me a sammich. . . or else. . .", and then he jumped back.

"HOLY CRIPES OF DOOKIE!" Zim screamed. He grabbed Clox and ran towards the door, but before he could run out, it swung open and knocked him in the head.

"Oopsie. Sorry Daddy." It was Pin. She hovered over him, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"M-monster," Zim and Clox whispered in unison, "in the closet. . ."

Pin looked to the closet curiously, then began to walk toward it.

"N-NO PIN!" Clox shrieked. "Y-y-you'll die!"

She ignored him, and opened the door. . .

"Mommy! What are you doing in the closet?"

Sure enough, Tak was hunched over in the small space, staring at her family, expressionless.

"M-mama. . .?" Clox asked, confused. He ran over to her, and hugged her leg. "Y-you killed the monster!"

"She is the monster, fool boy!" Zim shouted. He turned to his mate. "What in the name of Irk were you thinking. . .?"

Tak shrugged.

"I was bored," she said.

". . . you're a sick woman, you know that?"

He's over the wall. It wasn't that difficult really. All he had to do was climb it, although he did have to activate his spider legs a few times to keep himself from slipping. At one point, he almost dropped Tak's Licky Stick, but he caught it just in time.

So he's made it, and he can't believe what he's seeing. The wall brought him to a platform, that's hanging over a dam. A shallow stream of liquid is blocking Zim off from the center platform, which he's guessing leads inside to the Meekrob's base.

"This must be that burning substance," he thinks aloud, looking to the stream. He hovers his hand inches above it, then looks ahead. "Maybe I could jump over it. . ."

Although that's not one of his more brilliant plans, Zim decides to follow through with it.

He jumps as far as he can and, shockingly enough, he makes it to the other side just fine. Then he slips backwards and falls into the stream.

"My skin!" Zim screams in a panic, splashing around madly. "Burning is my skin!"

'Wouldn't it be funny if it was water. . .?' Tak's voice echoes through Zim's mind.

At the memory of those words, he instantly calms down, and that's when he realizes his skin isn't burning at all. He scoops some of the liquid up in his cupped palm, then relinquishes it back into the stream.

"Oh my Irk," he whispers in disbelief, "it is water. . ."

Now holding that knowledge, he makes his way to the center platform without worries.

Zim's stomach growls though, so that concerns him just a bit, but once again, he attempts to ignore it.

There are stairs. No doors or anything, just stairs leading below the platform. So he takes them. The whole way down he keeps alert, just in case someone catches him. Yet while he's keeping alert, he finds his mind drifting. . .

He's spent the last six years on Earth; the purpose being, or what he had believe the purpose to be, was to conquer it. So he could prove himself. But the real reason he had been sent there was just so he'd be out of the way. And what did he get out of it?

Six years of stress, of failed attempts to dominate. . .a fault SIR unit, a worst enemy. . .a family. . .

When Tallest Red told him that his mission was a lie, he felt like he couldn't breathe. Like he was drowning. Just for a second.

When the war's over with, when everyone's safe. . .where will he go? He doesn't want to stay on Earth, that's pretty definate, he's still banished from Irk. . .

He has no where to go. . .

He feels really-

grummmble. . .

Hungry. He is quite, quite hungry.

He's reached the bottom of the stairs, and he's in a dark chamber, the only source of light being a dimly lit electric torch in the far corner of the room. He can barely make out his own hand.

His stomach growls again.

"Was that you, Primitila?"

Zim jumps and backs against the wall instinctively. He looks to a hallway on his right extending from the room.

Two of the Meekrob are making their way toward the room, a faint glow illuminating from their bodies, providing the room with just a little more light.

"I'm offended Skersha," one of the Meekrob is saying. "You know I would never project such a crude noise."

"Then what was that sound?" Skersha responds.

As if on cue, Zim's stomach rumbles. The loudest it has all day, lucky him. The Meekrob pair turn to him in surprise.

"Who's there?" Primiltila calls. He nears Zim, who realizes at this point that his cover's basically blown.

Accepting that fact, he jumps out and shouts dramatically, "It is I, ZIM!"

"Gasp!" says Skersha. "An Irken! In our base!"

"'Gasp' indeed," Primitila says, although he looks rather bored as opposed to alarmed. "What do you want Irken? Don't you know that we're beneath a dam? The liquid above us can kill you."

"Ha!" Zim says triumphantly. "Your water has no affect on me! For I have a substance of my own that just so happens to be water-resistant."

"Intruiging," responds Primitila.

"Indeed," says Skersha. "Where were you able to develop this alleged substance?"

"Fool!" Zim shouts. "As if I'd tell you!"

"Fine. Don't."

"It's Earth paste, though. I will tell you that."

"Um, thanks."

"Earth?" Primitila asks inquisitively. He turns to Skersha. "Isn't that where the human lives? The one who informed our leader about water in the first place?"

"The one with the abnormally large head?"

"Yes, that's him."

"Dib!" Zim growls in contempt.

The Meekrob turn to him, confused.

"Geisundheit," says Skersha.

"No Skersha," Primitila says, "I believe that's the human's name. Do you know him, Irken?"

"Silence!" Zim shouts. "I am not here to discuss Dib! I am here to get Tak back!"

"What is a 'Tak'. . .?"

"My mate! You stole her!"

"What in the name of. . .?" Primitila glances to Skersha, confounded, who just shakes his head.

"I don't know either," he murmurs.

"DON'T PLAY DUMB," Zim orders, pointing his finger toward the Meekrob.
"We Meekrob hold no desire to reanact any behavior below the average intelligence," Primitila explains, "whether for jest of for-"

"I mean," Zim growls, "don't lie. I know Tak is in this filthy base somewhere, and if you don't give her back, I'll-"

"We are not holding this Tak of yours captive, I do not know where you recieved the notion-"

"Um, Primitila," Skersha interrupts softly, "We are holding. . .er, Tak as prisoner. . .um. . .on the upper platform, remember?"

Primitila looks to his companion quizzically, but then Skersha passes him a signaling glance, and he gets the gist.

"Yes! Of course!" he says. "How could I have forgotten?"

"How could I have missed her?" Zim says incredulously. "I was just up there!"

He runs up the stairs without hesitation, and makes it to the platform in nothing flat. His eyes frantically survey the scene; the platform is barren, except for the entrance to the stairs. The dam walls and water are surrounding it. No Tak.

But then, by the furthest corner of ther foundation, Zim sees a lever protruding from the ground, one he hadn't noticed before. Curious and hopeful, he rushes over, stoping himself just in time before he can slip off the edge.

The lever is beside three nobs. Each is labeled something, but it's in writing Zim can't interpret, unfortunately. He reaches his hand slowly toward the lever, is about to wrap his fingers around the handle. . .

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

He jumps back, nearly slipping off the edge again, but catched his balance. Floating by the entrance of the stairs are Skersha and Primitila.

"Where's Tak!" Zim demands.

"Step away from the lever!" Primitila orders, ignoring the Irken's question. "That determines how much water is released from the dam; if you push the lever carelessly, the force of water may destroy the dam and-"

"WHERE IS TAK!"
"Step away and I'll tell you!"

Zim doesn't budge.

"Irken! Did you not hear me, I said-"

"Where did you put her!"

"Irken," Skersha says calmly. He's floating beside Zim now. "Try looking down there. . ."

Zim looks backward. Off the edge of the platform, there's enormous drop, running an artificial waterfall.

"Why would she be down-"

From behind, Skersha shoves Zim as hard as he can. Zim falls forward, slips off the edge, his arms flailing wildly, ready to grab anything that might save him. His hand latches onto something, a rod. It's not enough to support his weight however, and the rod is getting pulled toward him.

As he dangles from the edge of the floor, Primitila can be heard above him, yelling, "You fool! Let go of the lever! The dam's going to break-!"

Zim's fingers start to slip. The rod's gone the furthest it can. He hears the water rushing, the wall is cracking. He reaches for the Licky Stick in the last moment, and then for just a second, he feels like he's drowning.

End of Chapter eight

Technically, there are three cliffhangers, causethere arethree different things going on right now! So basically, you all now have three reasons to hate me. Anyways. . . I had to rewrite the flashback. It sucked at first. But I like this one, although I am led to believe that Tak must be a very horrible mother from reading it. lol, kk. . . next chapter. . . 'The Prisoner's Paste'. . .meh heh heh. . .where there'll be. . .

- the Tallest, yet again

-an overly emotional Tak

-eh. . . more water! And stuff. . .

And after that, there's chapter 10, and then the thing is over.

No random crap to share with anyone today. Oh wells.