A/N: Well, fuck. I wrote an author's note last night explaining why this chapter is so late, but I guess I forgot to save it. Eh...screw rewriting the entire thing again. Basically, the gist of my author's note was that it's late because I needed to finish angel-winged-wolfess's prize for catching our 100th review before moving on to offer PhantomPhoenix4 a prize for catching our 200th review. That and I've been sick. But anyways, congratulations, PhantomPhoenix4. I shall get to work on your prize as soon as physically possible. And to angel-winged-wolfess, your prize is finished. I sent you a personal message last night, and I'll post a link in my profile here as well. To the rest of you, much love for faving and adding this story to your story alert lists. Remember that feedback be much appreciated. So let us get started already. Chapter 30 of ZADR Orange. This chapter be dedicated to PhantomPhoenix4. =3
Warnings: Extreme OOCness
Rating: M for later chapters
Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Gaz/Tak: Notgonnadie
Dib: Me
Beta: Notgonnadie
Not responding to Gaz's suggestion of getting some sleep, Dib just turned to wander the hallways of their school alone, just needing that time to think.
Sighing to herself, Gaz merely rolled her eyes. "Whatever...Wear yourself out then." she said before turning onto her side in the chair to get comfortable.
Ignoring her last comment, Dib exited the library and made his way to the gymnasium, the cold night air beginning to nip at his entire body but especially his hands, making them completely numb as he proceeded to take a seat on the bleachers where their school usually held assemblies.
The night was quiet and only the crickets seemed to be awake in the town.
After several hours of just sitting in the gymnasium thinking, Dib finally decided to return to the library where his sister was laying asleep in one of the chairs. Looking up at the clock in the room which read near midnight as he entered, he then quietly made his way to one of the chairs near his sister's and took a seat to curl up in it and fall asleep.
But just as he got settled, a loud roaring noise could be heard outside, breaking the silence.
Sitting up in his spot suddenly, having just been nodding off to sleep, Dib looked around, unsure whether he had just dreamed that noise or not.
That's when a loud crash followed by a few shock waves knocked all hints of doubt out of his mind.
So reaching over to shake Gaz, Dib attempted to wake her up. "Gaz...Gaz!" he said in a somewhat panicked whisper. "Did you hear that?" he asked, his voice shaking as he wanted to make sure he wasn't the only one who had heard it.
Grumbling in her sleep, Gaz merely turned over to face away from him. "Go away, Dib. I'm trying to sleep." she said, pushing his hand away.
Pulling his hand back and looking out one of the windows in the library, Dib sighed before standing up to quickly go check it out, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep until he did.
Meanwhile, outside the school, a certain purple-eyed Irken carefully crawled out of her ship, careful to avoid any hot metal. "Ahh...It seems almost 'nice' to be back on this dirtball." she said to herself with a smirk before stretching and climbing out of the crater her ship had made.
Opening one of the doors to the school near where he had heard the crash, making sure it remained open so he wouldn't get locked out of the school if it closed on him, Dib had a look about the place. "A-A cat...I-It must have just been a cat or something that knocked over a garbage can..." he tried to convince himself that that was all it was and nothing more. Remaining there about a minute longer, looking about the place, he then made his way back inside, not realizing how close her ship had crashed to his location.
Pulling herself out of the hole, Tak glanced up at the building she had landed in front of. "Hmm...The school? I thought I was aimed more at Zim's house...Ah well...I guess this will be as good a place as any to spend the night. Besides, I'd rather take him out when I'm more refreshed." she said, stretching some more and yawning before heading into the school.
Returning to the library where his sister was still asleep, feeling rather uncomfortable still and having no idea somebody had followed him into the school, Dib nonetheless found himself a new seat by one of the library's windows and sat down to stare out it for a while, feeling rather worn out and drained of all energy for the time being. "I guess I could check it out in the morning...Yeah...That's what I'll do..." he said to himself before yawning and finally letting his eyes slip closed again to sleep.
Not noticing Dib as she made her way to the office in the school, Tak found her own big cushy chair to rest in for a few hours.
Thus the two parties slept for nearly three hours, neither of them realizing they weren't alone in the school.
It wasn't until around 3:00 in the morning that Dib awoke again from his sleep though this time with the sudden need to use the bathroom. Sitting up straight in his chair from where he had been slumped down into, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before looking around, the place completely dark now. Then, looking over at his sister, who had barely moved from her spot, he stood up to quietly sneak out of the room and down the hall towards the bathrooms on campus, unable to believe that his bladder could possibly be so full after two days of not drinking anything at all.
Meanwhile, back in the office, Tak rolled over in the chair she was sleeping in and fell to the floor with a startled yelp. "AHH!" she jolted to her feet and glared at the chair before vaporizing it. Completely awake now, she then sighed to herself. "I might as well have a walk around for old times sake." she said to herself before leaving the room to wander the hallways.
Having a hard time making out anything at all at this point, Dib bounced a bit as he blindly searched the dark hallway for the bathroom doors. "Ugh...I wish we had thought to bring a flashlight or something first..." he mumbled to himself as he came across the cross section of the hallways again and cursed. "Dammit! I must have passed it already." he said before turning back around to search a little closer for it.
Little did he or Tak realize that her own walks lead her towards the bathrooms as well, causing her to shudder.
Without even noticing Tak in the darkness, Dib finally managed to locate the door to the boy's bathroom and didn't hesitate to head on in, relieved to have finally found it and even more relieved that it wasn't locked up for the night.
Noticing the bit of movement out of the side of her eye, Tak tensed, guarding herself.
Dib, however, couldn't help but sigh out in some relief as he quickly used the bathroom and flushed the toilet about a minute later, heading over towards the sinks to wash his hands.
Still standing defensively in the hallway, Tak glared at the door. "COME OUT, YOU! I KNOW I SAW SOMEONE GO IN THERE!" she demanded, waiting for whoever it was to exit.
Jumping just as he was about to reach for the door to head on out, not recognizing the voice at first and thinking it may be one of the janitors that came to clean the school when nobody was there or a teacher or something, Dib held up his hands to show he wasn't doing anything wrong and squeezed his eyes shut as he exited the bathroom, not wanting to get in trouble. "We're sorry! We just didn't have anywhere else to stay for the night! Please don't call the police on us or something!" he pleaded with whoever it was not to turn them in.
Deadpanning at the site of Dib exiting the bathroom, Tak just about dropped her weapon. "D-Dib?" she stuttered out. It couldn't be! He looked Irken, at least in this light, but...
Peeking one eye open at hearing his name and then the other, both of Dib's eyes grew wide at the sight of Tak standing right there in front of him. Then, with a startled noise escaping him, he jumped back a bit, his bare back pressing against the wall behind him as he slid down to the ground below. "T-Tak? Wh-What are you doing here? Why have you returned to Earth?" he demanded, knowing it couldn't be a good sign if she was here.
"I was sent to kill Zim...Why are you Irken?" Tak said the first part nonchalantly before returning the focus of this conversation on why Dib looked Irken now.
Eyes growing wide and antennae perking up suddenly at Tak's words, Dib was unable to get past her first sentence to answer her question. "Wh-What...?" he stuttered out, his face having grown very pale now, not that anybody would be able to tell in the darkness. "Sent? By who?" he wanted answers.
Glaring at Dib, Tak took a step towards him. "I'll tell you if you tell me. WHY are you Irken?" she asked again, growing annoyed with his lack of a response to her first question.
Starting to back away from her on the ground, Dib merely shook his head however. "I'm not! You're just seeing things!" he tried to make her think that she was mistaken and that the lack of light was just playing tricks on her eyes as he quickly made an attempt to get back up onto his feet so he could make a run for the library and warn his sister that Tak was back.
But Tak stopped him with one of her PAK legs. "Then what is this?" she asked, grabbing at his antennas.
Letting out a pained yelp at the rough treatment, Dib reached up to where his antennae were. "Ow! Let go!" he tried to push her hand away as he felt tears springing to his eyes, the resulting headache he had been sporting all day suddenly growing 10 times worse. Praying that she didn't decide to just rip out the thin appendages one at a time, he struggled to pull away from her.
Glaring at him for all his struggling, Tak let go of the antennas and rather grabbed him to slam against the wall. "Lucky for you, an honorable Irken never tears at another's antennae. Now TALK! Before I decide to become...dishonorable." she seemed to purr out threateningly as she slid one hand back up to the delicate appendages.
Letting out another pained sound at being slammed against the wall, Dib's antennae lowered in submission as he whimpered out helplessly, not wanting to tell her that Zim had done it for him. Still refusing to tell her anything about it, he then gulped before merely shaking his head. "It's none of your business..." he said before wincing back, expecting the worse.
"Tsk, tsk...Then it will be none of your business why I'm after Zim." Tak said with a smirk.
Knowing he needed to get to Zim before she did, Dib could only struggle more at her response. "You leave him alone, you bitch!" he screamed at her, suddenly angry as he twisted this way and that in an attempt to slip out of her grip.
"Feisty, aren't you? What's the matter? I thought you hated Zim." Tak smiled cruelly at him, knowing he was hiding something from her.
Dib could only glare daggers at her in response though. "If you thought that, then why did you come? Why not just let me take care of him myself?" he tried to put on his best act, wanting her to think that he was still out to get Zim so she would leave him alone.
A/N: And there you have it. Your weekly update of ZADR Orange. =3 Yeah...No Zimmeh in this chapter. But you guys all get Tak! 83 So all the Tak fans can squeam with joy now. X3 For the record, I AM on break now and may consider posting more than one chapter a week during that time. But that's all dependent on how good you guys are. So play nice in your reviews. ^.^ With that said, let me take this time to respond to those of you who reviewed. =3
To Watermelondrea: Lol. XD You really think those would be enough to take out Gaz? She's indestructable. She cannot be killed off by anything of this world. XD And don't worry. Zim and Dib are sure to work it out eventually. =3 Gaz won't interfere anymore.
To Casykirby: Don't let Gaz get to you too much. Like we've said many times before, Gaz is a GOOD character in this story. And she's not trying to protect herself. She DOES think Dib's being with Zim is a threat to his health. And in a lot of ways, it is. But you'll see what I mean by that later in the story. =3
To maliceofhumansacrifice: Lol. XD Gir is very sweet. And loyalty does seem to be his best trait. If only everybody could have their own little Gir. (Sighs dreamily) But anyways, he is very cute. And I like to draw him too on occasion. =3 Such a cute little robot dog. ^.^
To lillybean queen of the i ocean: He just can't seem to win in this story, can he? DX
To Illisandria Carthain: Lol. XD Good. I'm glad it's coming back to you now. And don't worry too much about forgetting. NGD and I even forget about certain scenes and we're the ones writing it. XD But anyways. Gaz doesn't exactly trust Zim yet. So that's why she's pulling them apart. But that was her last time really interfering. After this, she for the most part just minds her own business. =3 As for your question, I honestly wouldn't know. I've read a lot of IZ fanfictions but stopped a few years back. I don't remember many of the ones I've read and I don't really read them anymore nowadays. I mainly just write for the fandom now. I don't have too much time for reading. Because if I'm interupted while writing (and that happens a LOT), I know I'll actually eventually return to it. But if I'm interupted in the middle of reading, I usually won't return to it because I get caught up in other things. But anyways. Bleh...I don't even know what schedule I'm on any longer when it comes to updating this story. I kind of scatter-brained now that I'm on break. Hell, I missed an entire week even. So I think I'll just update when I feel like it during this break. When school starts up again though, I'll create another for keeping up with our not so consistent updates though. We really appreciate it. =3 And I will. ^^
To heartofstone15: Well, he should. Red's probably the worst character in this story. He does so many horrible things to both Zim and Dib later on in the story, not to mention poor Purple. But you'll see what I mean by that later on. As for Gaz, she doesn't trust Zim fully. But she'll get over it. Tak appears in this chapter so we hope you enjoy. =3
To Alice in Muderland: Well, hello there. 8D So nice of you to join us. Thank you so much for the kind review. We're really glad you're enjoying the story so much. ^^ It is a sad story though, which we warn people about. But fear not! We're working towards a happy ending. =3 Zim and Dib shan't be apart for much longer. Gir is kind of the glue in this story. He holds things together whenever Zim and Dib are apart. =3 And I've always enjoying toying around with the relationship between Gir and Zim. It's such a cute one. ^3^ Even if Zim won't admit it, we all know he cares about that insane little robot. =3 I wouldn't say he's exactly smart enough to get Zim and Dib back together though. But don't worry. They'll work it out on their own soon enough. =3 Thank YOU for the wonderful review. We really appreciate it. So until next time~
To Sapcoat: Lol. XD No worries. Just so long as I know it's you, it's all good. X3 School drains me even when I'm on break. But I try not to let FF get too in the way. Anyways, yesh! Zimmeh always has Gir at least. =3 So all is still right with the world. Baaa~
To Vithian: Yes. Yes, she does. (Sigh) But I'm glad this isn't another Gaz hate mail comment. =3 Thank you for that. And I wouldn't know about actually having cousins my own age. Only have two. The oldest one is probably in her 40s now and has two kids of her own (They're kind of spoiled like my cousin is) and my other cousin is at least 13 years older than me. She just got married and doesn't have any children yet. But I actually like her. She's such a sweet heart. Unfortunately, both live far away...err...well, actually, unfortunately the NICE ONE lives far away. The other one I don't mind being so far away. But anyways, our Christmas is just a get together for brunch. My family comes over to our house and we play a game to decide who gets what presents. We don't have snow though. It gets really cold here, but we're too close to the ocean to get any snow, at least, to get any snow that actually reaches the ground. It always melts before making it to the ground. The last time we truly had a real snow was over 20 years ago. But I always hope we may get some each year. If we don't then my friends and I drive up to a place 5 hours from us that has snow almost year round. Well, it IS important to keep those instruments clean. I played the flute and had to keep mine clean if I didn't want it to break down. I watched the shows for Sonic growing up and I still watch Pokemon every chance I get. XD But it's the games and comics that really got me into the fandom. =3 This conversation actually got me playing the game again though. XD I'm in the process of making Christmas chao for my friends to adopt. Was considering offering some here as well. But I never restart my chao gardens. I've been raising chao since I was 12. I couldn't just give them up. So my solution is always to just buy a new memory card. XD And I have a TON of them. My dog chewed through the cord for my Gamecube though, so I'm using my Wii to play the game now. =3 It's working pretty well despite how long I've owned the game. And I'm really having fun with it. =3 Anyways, don't worry too much. Life is somewhat slowing down again. This last week was hectic, but I don't think I'll be doing much in the days to come. My friend who moved to England is visiting and her younger brother gave me and all my friends a cold he had coming over. So now we're all quarantined together until we're better. Because he just recovered and we don't want him getting sick again. My friends have been coming over to my house to steal my blankets and sleep on my couch. And I think I'm reaching the worst part of my cold right now. My throat is swollen and I can't swallow for the life of me. But oh well. That just means I don't really have to go out anywhere for a few days. And I think you were the first person to notice we were nearing our 200th review, which we reached a few hours after you said anything about it. XD So thanks for reading and helping us reach it. =3
To PhantomPoenix4: Before I welcome you to our little group of reviewers, let me be the first to congratulate you on catching our 200th review. =3 I've already got something in mind for your prize and will get to work on it as soon as I'm feeling well enough to do so. =3 We're so glad you're enjoying our story so much and hope you'll continue to read and review here, even though you are reading it on DA. ^^; So please keep your eyes open for updates here as well. DA doesn't host the entire story for a reason. With that said, I bid you a fond farewell until next time~