Hello, dear audience! Thank you all so much for joining in on yet another chapter! I apologize for the long update times, I really only have weekends to work on my stories and I can't keep a schedule for the life of me. Either way, I hope you're all still well and ready to read!
Sound fluttered into existence. Fading, pulsing around her. Familiar, but so unintelligible...the wind picked up and a white light flashed behind her lids as her consciousness threatened to give. Her brain refused to register her surroundings as she blinked into rough wakefulness. A layer is chilled sweat clung to her skin and a deep ache ran up her back with every movement. The sound came again.
"...!"
Heard, but forgotten so quickly she swore it could have been imagined instead.
"...im!"
Heard, so familiar...was that...
"G...z!"
Yelling?
"GAZ!"
Hands were suddenly on her, the touch lighting fires through her nerves as her mind was thrust into reality. The wind had stopped, the light was gone, and the terror stricken face of her brother took the forefront in her vision. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be working the crowd because of...
The memories leading to her current position came surging back; trying to reason with Tak, her refusal, her insistence that she was doing the right thing despite the chaos that lay around her...and then...
She gasped, "Where is Zim?"
"My king, it is with great honor that I present your runaway consort!" Tak announced proudly.
The silence of the ship's cabin was her only reply. She mulled the words over in her head before speaking again.
"Your magnificence," she growled, "I thought you might be pleased to know that your spouse is in safe custody. He shall be returned to you before the cycle's end!"
Silence.
Mimi sat peacefully beside her, focusing intently on the alien as she ran through speech after speech. It has to be perfect, she thought to herself. Not too curt, not too long, no implications or possible double-meanings, no indication of her hatred of Zim or her displeasure of even interacting with the scum of Noxisis. Far too many people in her life thought her incompetent, but she would prove them all wrong! She'd be marked as a hero, given the recognition that was rightfully hers! The glory that had escaped all those years ago was circling back now because it belonged to her. She would triumph over them all and, most importantly, she would finally win over Zim. With a giddy grin, she turned to take a look at her fallen adversary. He was crammed haphazardly in the back of her cruiser, still out cold with his arms bound tightly behind him. She had half expected him to be awake by now...
As more time passed, she began to notice the small changes that had occurred. They were both notably taller, though she refused to admit out loud that she stood just a few inches shy. It had been hard to believe he was descended from a Tallest, but studying him now...his waist had thinned some and from the angle at which he lie, she could see the way his hips had filled out, no doubt for bearing. Did he have children? Surely he wouldn't have just left them. Though...perhaps he would? She doubted any children to stem from him would have been out of wanting. Somehow, the thought made her more irritable and her gaze hardened on him. No-
"You deserve this," she spoke, "Every. Single. Bit of it."
He said nothing, eyes shut and face set in contented sleep. His Pak blinked slowly to signify his dormant state, pink waves lighting up the dark interior and defining deep shadows. Her eyes traced a cut on his neck.
"It doesn't have to be this way..."
The words prodded at her. Yes, it does.
A bruise on his cheek.
"I know what's at stake..."
But you don't care.
A tear in his clothes.
"I don't want to fight you."
Why not?!
A burn, a look.
"We have a ch-"
A plea.
"ENOUGH!"
Ignoring her startled SIR, the Irken shook whirled around to face the dash. She shook her head and snarled in disgust as she punched in the direct line number she'd been given, jabbing at the screen harder than necessary. She was not going to go down this road...she was not going to so much as think about it! Zim was her enemy, the enemy of her society! He'd proven it time and time again and he'd chosen his side. Plan...there was no plan, just the desperate ramblings of a coward caught red-handed. Irk, she hated him...hated Miyuki for bringing this absolute canker into existence. Defective blood from a defective queen...if Zim hadn't already done the deed of ridding the universe of her, she may have just done it herself...He'd left them all to rot in the oncoming throes of war, but she'd put a stop to all that right now. With one final scan of her eyes over the digits, she moved swiftly to toward the call button, gaining angry momentum to a hair's breadth of contact-
Then she stopped. Finger hovering shakily over the call button, the gall she'd been building up fizzled like a flame to water...its smoke contorting into a waft of dancing shame at her own pusillanimity. Mimi observed expectantly from her place beside her master, the transient thought to press the button for her coming to light before immediately being pushed aside by a curious sound. Shifting casually, the SIR sat to face their guest, innocent yet scrutinizing eyes thoroughly assessing him. Another weak groan stirred in his throat, his face twitching as his blinking Pak slowed with wakefulness. Risking another once-over to Tak, she found the alien now sat back in her chair and quietly muttering to herself, short and sharp gestures signifying her aggravation. The android let her be, interest fully attuned to Zim as she hopped off from her seat and came to crouch over him.
Zim felt the world around him before he saw it. A subtle propulsion, a dull yet intense ache settling across the back of his skull, his shoulder pulling just slightly out of place as it supported him, and...tapping?
Tap
Tap
He scrunched his face against the small impacts of something prodding at him. As his eyes finally cracked open, all he could register was dizziness, the warped figures that made up his surroundings, and a metallic face much too close to his own.
"...Gir," he whispered, his voice not quite forming it into the question he'd hoped for.
The robot tilted its head, but said nothing. He noted the red of its eyes next and the space for, but absence of a mouth second. He caught movement in his peripheral and then-
Tap!
A shot adrenaline rolled through his body as the robot gave him another slap. The small hand sat flat against his cheek as he started, pulling in vigorous amounts of air to quell the shock. He jerked and forced his body upright, taking in familiar surroundings but unable to recognize anything. His antennae twitched as they picked up subtle murmuring. Twisting in its direction, he saw himself cast in the shadow of a large chair, a brightly lit control panel in the front and a pair a bobbing stalks caught in the light.
That's right...he'd been caught, hadn't he?
"Tak...!" he exclaimed.
It took a whole nanosecond for her to whip around, eyes ablaze with raw emotion. She seemed startled upon seeing him, but it was promptly masked with a hot fury as her gaze landed on the SIR.
"Mimi!" she shouted, voice shrill.
Like an accusing parent, she thrust a finger down at the spot beside her, watching expectantly as the android connected the dots and obeyed.
"Honestly, I've had just about enough of you..." she eyed her servant before turning to look critically at him, "Not that it's entirely your fault, of course."
Zim stared at the robot...they hadn't actually been acquainted and Irk knows he never cared to dedicate a space in his memory for her. From what he did remember, she was a typical SIR, albeit abnormally aggressive. Though, what could one really expect being constructed by Tak? He didn't really have a great concept of "motherhood", but it was obvious she'd taken something after her master. She certainly displayed her knack for revenge and pettiness. Now? Her scarlet optics remained, but her functionality was... deficient? Obstructed? She seemed almost...innocent to the world around her. Awake, but not quite aware...like-
"Admiring your handiwork, eh?" Tak's bitter voice broke in, "You always did have a knack for ruining the lives of others, and not even in a good way."
"Tak-" he breathed, shaking his head.
"Shut up!" she snapped, finding sick satisfaction when he jumped.
She found it odd when he actually appeared to listen. Sat in his uncomfortable spot, he eyed her warily, but said nothing.
"You know..." she began again," for a long time, none of us knew who was causing all the trouble in our empire. We were young, most of us just starting our career training when the rumors of some...rogue began popping up through the lodging. Stories of a Smaller so profoundly substandard and inutile that he couldn't keep a single encoding! There I thought, 'surely no one can be that incapable!'. Then, of course, came Horrible, Painful, Overload Day 2..."
Their eyes met and she felt another punch of satisfaction when he turned away. She sat glaring at him a moment longer before continuing.
"After that day, everyone knew your name. 'Zim'", she spat, "...a name adorned by great warriors in our culture...sullied by the hands of a single defect. We were all relieved when Miyuki shipped you off to Vort, it gave us a chance to rebuild what you'd destroyed, but naturally it didn't last. I pity the poor Irkens that had to bear witness to your assassination of the Tallests...even more surprised that you weren't shot dead right there beside them. Then granted the possibility to become an Invader!"
"It was unexpected..." he mumbled casually.
"It was an outrage!", she snarled back, "Irkens have been killed for far less and there you were, unreasonably pardoned without so much as a trial for one of the most heinous crimes possible! What must it be like, being so unlikable and perverse that even the executioner wants nothing to do with you?! Oh, but at least you were far enough away that I would never have to deal with you personally, right? Ha! Decades of study and training washed away the very moment it all really mattered, plunged into the darkened pit of a planetary blackout caused by none other than Irk's personal jinx...and where did that leave me? Purposeless, missionless, roaming ceaselessly trying to survive on my own because my empire wants nothing from a codeless drone and it's all your fault."
She trained her eyes hard on some far side of the ship as she seethed, afraid she'd crack if she looked at him. Her voice quaked with an odd emotion sitting beside her fury...her eyes burned and her throat constricted as if a yell were trying to break free, only no sound would come. Thankfully, the Irken across from her stayed silent, hopefully taking in everything she'd said so he might finally grasp the consequences of his impulses, the suffering his existence had brought...
"To be fair...it's kind of your fault, too."
Or not.
"...You want to run that by me again?", Tak said darkly, claws digging into the arm of her seat.
"Sure," Zim replied, tone slightly patronizing, "while it is true that the blackout was my own fault, the fact that you have yet to rank up is all yours!"
A hellish shriek broke through the air as the female Irken lunged. Several sharpened tendrils shot from her Pak, stopping mere inches from piercing his flesh and surrounding him from all sides. Zim fell backward against the sudden onslaught, only to have his fall broken by powerful grip clamping down on his airway. He struggled instinctively for a single moment, bound hands trying in vain to break free, before forcing himself to relax beneath her looming figure. She jerked him forward, hoping she might just be lucky enough to snap his neck, even by accident.
"All this time," he continued, "you've been drowning in a mission that doesn't exist. I may have been the first to do you wrong, but you did yourself the injustice of letting it consume you. You stayed on Dirt for decades...and left only so you could try and get back at someone you didn't even know. Do you even realize the things you could have accomplished in the time you've spent hating me instead? You spend all of this time in your own head that you can't see what's right in front of your face! Even now...you're, what, a bounty hunter? Seemingly content in the miserable situation you settled for, but it goes to the birds the moment you see a chance to get back at me. You may not be an Invader, but you sure as hell could have managed to be something more."
She stared down at him, a cloudy and distracted look in her eye. The hand around his throat had slackened and he used the opportunity to sweep a leg at the back of her knees, causing her to yelp and fall away from him. For a second, he thought she might come at him again, but instead she scooted a little farther away. There was a flurry of pain and realization on her face...had she really wasted so much time? Let opportunity after opportunity pass her by...because she was bitter? Had she truly taken a better life from herself? She slumped in her position, suddenly feeling all the eyes on her and wanting almost desperately to be anyone but herself.
"I know," Zim spoke up again. Irk, did he ever stop talking? "what it's like to have to find a new purpose. To have the life you envisioned ripped away from you...and I know how much you want to take it all out on me...but this isn't the way."
She paused, studying the floor, "...He'll go to war."
"He was going to go to war anyway."
That made her look up, a silent question passing between them. Zim shook his head, incredulous.
"Do you really think...I'd be here otherwise?" he asked, "That I would wait all this time and choose now to escape just because I wanted to? I owe Irk nothing, but now I've risked everything to try save it from succumbing to something even worse than itself! You can think whatever you want, but I wouldn't have come back if I hadn't needed to."
"So what? King Iserai put an incentive on your head- I'm supposed to be delivering you to him as we speak!", Tak shouted, "There's no way any of us could take on Noxisis and make it out...we wouldn't even make a dent!"
"Not by ourselves, no...but that was never the plan. What do you know about The Resisty?", he prodded.
She scoffed, waving a hand, "Not enough for it matter. They're some...misguided group of fanatic mutineers bent on taking down the empire...anyone willing to associate with them would have to be off..their...heads..."
She trailed off as Zim's face became somewhat expectant, "You cannot be serious; that's the plan you were talking about?!"
"I know it sounds rough around the edges," he shifted, "but they've amassed quite the following over the years..."
"I thought you were trying to save Irk."
"We are. We've had talks about a shift in power on Irk...it was the best I could do to get them on board."
Tak didn't bother with a reply. She sat, weighing her options. The thought had crossed her mind that, even after returning Zim...her life would be the same. Or she'd be double crossed. If she joined this...rebellion, there was a rather high chance they would all die horrible, wretched deaths. Then, on the off chance they managed to succeed, her empire would likely be disbanded. Irk, she was better off sticking to her side jobs...! Risking a glance to Mimi, she found that the little robot had moved and taken residence next to their captive. He seemed just as taken aback, but soon enough the pair turned their eyes to her.
Screwing her face up, she made an exasperated sound before speaking, "Mark these words; if I die, I will haunt you."
He let out an airy chuckle, "If you die, I'll probably be in the same boat. Though, that isn't on the schedule..."
She snickered incredulously, "Then let's just hope your capacity for planning has improved since we last met."
They were silent after that...four societal rejects resting in a rickety spaceship wafting in the cold stillness of space after plotting an insurgency for two of the most unforgiving governments in the universe. That is...until an idea struck the peace.
"Although..." Zim said, sheepishly, "we might have another problem to deal with first..."
Oh dear, it appears I fell off the fandom wagon! Very sorry for the long wait, I've been wracking my brain for weeks trying to figure out how I wanted this scene to play out and I'm still not 100% happy. But, you all have waited long enough. Thank you again for being so patient, see you all next time!
