Family Ties
Maybe he was a bit quick to share all of the Irken's secret information, although he hadn't really given anyone details about the Invaders.
Maybe he should... but he wanted to wait until after having a talk with Zim first.
The Irken was considered defective for a few things: namely disobeying the Tallest, ignoring his programming, destroying Irk's capital city, and killing a bunch of Irken invaders...
He overheard the guards talking about all of this shortly after Vort was conquered.
Gashloog mentioned something about it briefly before he died too.
Zim was very destructive, and he was considered a pain and a fool by his own people.
The Irken wasn't a fool though... while he was destructive, he was also clever in a bizarre way.
Sure a lot of the things he made looked odd or didn't function the way others thought the devices should, but usually his inventions, no matter how strange or absurd, ended up working somehow.
Zim normally talked about himself in third person, boldly stating "I am Zim" and praising himself for his intellect or amazingness. He always looked down on everyone else, even other Irkens. Even taller Irkens.
Also he had no reservations about experimenting on living creatures whether they were sentient or not...
It was possible that Zim's superiority complex and desire to preform insane experiments stemmed from the Invaders' programming. It might also explain why when he was reprogrammed and banished to Foodcourtia (that was something he was able to hack off of an Irken website) Zim kept his "invader" title.
If he actually thought of himself as an Invader and not an invader, it wouldn't matter how many times the Control Brains changed his programming.
The Tallest also mentioned quite a while ago that Zim had been put on Trial for all of these crimes, and that resulted in the Control Brains going crazy, which wasn't a normal reaction probably... at least no one had ever heard of the Control Brains malfunctioning before...
Not that the Irkens would be entirely honest about that sort of thing.
At least he could move around now, although every once and a while his legs would lose feeling and he'd have to stay still or risk collapsing.
Bann said this was likely temporary and the device implanted in his spine would need to get used to his movements or something.
Bann wasn't an engineer, and this device didn't sound like something the Irken engineers put a lot of time or effort into, most likely because Irkens would never need it...
They probably wanted to use it for the slaves they accidentally or purposefully maimed so the crippled ones could keep working like normal.
He was pretty sure Irkens exterminated "useless" creatures like that, so them creating something that would result in not killing people was a pretty big step forward really, but then he thought maybe the reason they decided to invest in this device was because they were maiming their slaves too much...
That was a frightening thing to think about... he needed to stop thinking about it.
"Hey son?" his father's hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he glanced up from the amplifier he was working on.
Lard Nar hadn't returned, so he'd started working on it instead.
He knew his former cellmate had been avoiding him before, and he really hoped he hadn't made things worse, but this was something he really wanted to do.
"Yes?" he responded. "What is it?"
"Your mother and I have been talking and well..." his father withdrew his hand and rubbed his cheek. "I think it's time you learned about..." he paused for a few seconds and looked up at the cracked and crumbling ceiling above. "I used to be in a gang way back when."
Laes blinked at him. "Um..." well that was... news.
His good-natured, optimistic, caring father who always made a point about how important it was to have honest work used to be in a gang?
"Ok..."
"Yeah, I ran with the Bloodglitz back before you were born," Freedo's attention left the ceiling, and he rubbed the back of his head when his eyes met Laes'. "I just didn't want either of us to die without you knowing about that, and considering we've both almost died recently, I figured now would be a good time to tell you."
"That's... well... that's ok dad... I mean it's surprising, but that was a long time ago already."
"I just don't want you to feel trapped by the confines of whatever is left of our society, you know, just in case you wanted to join that rebel group," his father gave him a half-smile. "Everyone needs to make their own choices in life... and even though I'll be very worried if you get involved with violence, or smuggling illegal substances, I won't physically restrain you if that's what you choose to do with your life."
"I'm ok... really... I've never been interested in... well... that..." Laes responded, and his father breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's great! Your mom will be happy to hear that," he replied patting his son on the shoulder. "But if you ever change your mind, you can always come to me for advice on how to not die so quickly, because I have a lot of experiences with getting stabbed and shot so I can tell you what to look out for."
"Ok... but I really don't think I will," Laes told him honestly.
He wasn't cut-out to be a rebel. His brief but painful travels had taught him that much.
His father took a step back and seemed almost ready to leave.
"So that guy, Lard Nar, is he the one who introduced you to the rebels?"
"Yeah, well, I mean he was their leader for a while so..."
"Really?" Freedo's eyes seemed to light up with his information. "I kind of thought the missing fingers and the eye thing was probably due to gang related violence, but engineering can also cause those injuries, so I didn't want to outright ask him if he belonged to a gang because your mother would scold me again."
"Those injuries were caused by the Irkens... they also killed his whole family."
"Wow. That's awful," his father said, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "Poor guy." He frowned thoughtfully and rubbed his chin.
"Hold on... his family weren't members of the Protection Force were they?"
"Um... yeah... he was the only engineer in his family I think..." Laes answered.
Where was his father going with this...? ...Did he want to know where his father was going with this?
"Oh boy..."
Laes squinted an eye at him. "What is it..?"
Freedo raised his hands and managed a smile. "He looks a lot like an older guy I might have stabbed once... and maybe brawled with a few times." He added: "the Bloodglitz were at odds with the law, so we often fought with the Protection Force."
"Why was your gang called Bloodglitz?" Laes asked since it seemed his father wanted to talk about his dark secret past right now. The name kind of sounded like "buglettes."
"Because our boss liked creating "works of art" from the blood of his enemies in the street and along the sides of tall buildings," his father answered without missing a beat. "He'd drink it and dye his clothes with it too."
Freedo paused for a moment and tapped his chin.
"He was a pretty gross guy now that I think about it."
Laes felt the color drain from his face. "Yeah... that's really gross," he agreed before shifting his attention back to the amplifier. "I'm uh... going to continue working on this now..."
"Yeah, I guess I better get back to work too," his father decided even though it didn't look like he was going to rejoin the group he'd been working with that morning.
Instead he joined a completely different group: the one Lard Nar seemed to be assisting.
The former leader of the Resisty didn't seem interested in helping him contact Zim, but that was ok. Lard Nar had been through a lot of really painful things.
Asking him to help was selfish, and also kind of pushy, and he was beginning to wonder if he should have asked him at all.
"Hey, Lard Nar?" Freedo asked the only Vortian who wasn't dressed in green prison attire.
The startled fellow turned to him with widened eyes that looked him up and down before settling on his face.
"Yes..?" the other Vortian responded, gripping his wrench tightly and drawing it to his chest. "Do you need help with something...?"
"Actually I was hoping I could help out over here for a bit," Freedo admitted with a smile.
"You can ask Shaddi," Lard Nar responded, gesturing to the Vortian with the tawny-brown skin color and curvy grey horns. "He's the team leader..."
Lard Nar's voice had no energy, yet his body was tense as though he was expecting he'd need to react somehow.
This was pretty common for gang members. They could never really be relaxed.
Freedo glanced at Darden who was watching them.
The Irken was usually hanging around Lard Nar for some reason, but he decided not to ask any questions about it.
"Alright, but maybe we could talk for a bit first?" Freedo suggested.
He thought he'd just start working and casually bring up the next point of conversation sometime, but he was beginning to realize that talking about his former gang membership in public probably wouldn't be the best idea.
He pointed down a dark and very broken looking hallway.
The ceiling closest to them hadn't split apart yet, but the large cracks it had didn't make it seem like the most reliable ceiling anymore. There was only a few gaps where a bit of light was able to poke through, but it was definitely darker than the cafeteria since not only was there more sunlight able to get in there, one of the other teams managed to get some of the lights in the cafeteria working.
Lard Nar looked where he was pointing before returning his attention to him. The other Vortian's gaze didn't meet his.
"I understand..." Lard Nar replied, sounding tired.
He looked tired too despite being tense. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his movements weren't very quick.
The tool he was holding dropped to the floor before he obediently began walking into the dark passageway. He turned back and motioned to Darden who'd started to follow to stay where he was.
Freedo trailed along behind him until they were further down the hallway, away from the noise of the cafeteria.
The other Vortian kept his back to him for a while as he gripped one of his arms to his chest.
"I'm sorry for getting Laes involved..." Lard Nar began in a quiet voice.
There was only a bit of light here, but it was enough to see. Freedo was looking around at the damaged walls and broken ceiling. There was a spot further down the hall where a large section seemed to have caved in.
"It's my fault he was tortured and ended up losing his hand..."
Lard Nar continued after pausing briefly.
"It's also my fault he was taken from Vort and nearly died several times... so whatever you want to do to me..."
"Do to you?" Freedo repeated in surprise. "I didn't ask you to come here so I could stab you or something."
He looked around again at the dark isolated hallway.
"But you're right. This place would be a good spot for that kind of thing. Anyway, I just wanted to talk about your family for a minute if that's ok."
"They're dead..." Lard Nar responded with very little feeling behind his words.
"Were they a part of Vort's protection unit when they were alive?" Freedo questioned undetoured for the moment.
"Yes."
"Was your father's name Gan Jue?"
Silence followed.
"Your brother was Nam Tok right?" Freedo tried when Lard Nar didn't reply.
"H-how do you know their names...?" Lard Nar asked; his voice a weak whisper. "Everyone who knew them... they're dead..."
Freedo took a step closer.
Lard Nar's shoulders were trembling. The other Vortian still hadn't turned to look at him at all.
"A long while ago I belonged to the Bloodglitz gang," he admitted, and he wasn't surprised at all when Lard Nar spun around to face him.
The other Vortian quickly pressed himself against the wall and raised his hands defensively.
"Hold on, look," Freedo spoke, holding up his hands to show Lard Nar he wasn't carrying a weapon. "I'm not going to stab you, I promise. I just want a chance to explain the long and complicated relationship I had with your father."
Lard Nar nodded quickly in response.
"Well great," Freedo smiled and he sat down in the middle of the hallway since Lard Nar was still watching him warily and didn't seem willing to move away from the wall. He figured sitting would be less threatening than standing.
"So I'm guessing based on your reaction just now that your father probably talked about his work a bit. He was really good at what he did. I escaped arrest several times, but your father was always able to track me down. We had some pretty good brawls, I'm not going to lie about it, and there was one time I was so fed up with him I stabbed him in the leg and ran off."
He chuckled and shook his head.
"I was such an angry and aggressive person back then."
"He never mentioned your name..." Lard Nar quietly admitted.
"Yeah, and I never mentioned his either," Freedo responded, pointing up at the ceiling, though he quickly dropped his hand back down.
"We couldn't really back then. I mean if the other members found out the name of the guy who kept putting me in prison... but there was his one time I was so fed up with the guy, I was going to totally drop his name to the boss since I was very angry and petty.
First I decided to stalk him to see if I could ambush him myself, and I found out he had a life partner and a couple Vortlings!"
His expression fell as he lowered his hand and shook his head.
"In that scenario, with the boss being the way he was, if I mentioned his name he'd be roasted alive. Literally. And his whole family would probably be cut-up or something equally disturbing.. So I left everything alone. I guess he never mentioned my name either since doing so would implicate him in my arrests, and the worst case scenario for that would still be pretty disgusting."
He smiled again.
"But then I started getting close to Felara who wanted nothing to do with gangs or the gang lifestyle. If you meet the right woman and she says "no gangs" well, I quit anyway. The boss wasn't happy but your father helped me make a clean break. We had drinks a couple times after that, but since I was forced to relocate and change my identity, and my whole life really, I lost touch with him."
Freedo stretched his arms behind his back.
"Anyway, your father was a great guy. I met your brother once too. He looked a lot like him, but yeah. Your dad could have tacked on extra charges every time I resisted arrest."
He leaned forward and rested his head against his hand.
"I could have done a lot more time for stabbing him too, but instead he kept telling me to think about where I wanted my life to go. He actually asked me where I saw myself in five years, or ten years, and if being more involved in the gang was really a good idea."
"Why did you join them?" Lard Nar questioned, and he slowly slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
"I made a few very poor life choices, although having a rocky home life probably didn't help," Freedo responded shrugging. "After I bonded with Felara I decided I was going to become a steady worker and an upstanding citizen for her sake, and for the sake of the family I realized I wanted. A few years later Laes was born and I vigorously buried my past.
I actually never told him I was involved with the Bloodglitz until a few minutes ago."
"He must have been surprised..."
"I think he was a bit shocked, but he handled it well. Laes can be a bit spacey and socially awkward at times, but he's never been overly harsh or judgmental," Freedo admitted, rubbing the back of his head ruefully as he laughed.
Then he scootched a bit closer to Lard Nar. He figured the other Vortian was probably relaxed enough now for him to approach although he decided to remain sitting just in case.
"That's the way Felara and I raised him, but everyone is free to make their own choices in life. We lucked out having two great children who were both hard working." He sighed. "I just wish they hadn't become independent so quickly... I kind of miss them happily rushing me after I came home from work and eating dinner together as a family. It's always the little stuff you miss the most right?"
Lard Nar nodded and bit his lip.
There were tears in his eyes.
He lowered his head and curled closer to himself.
Freedo edged as close as he could without touching Lard Nar.
"Can I give you a hug?" He asked, and when Lard Nar nodded, he didn't hesitate placing his arm over the other Vortian's shoulders and pulling him into a hug.
"I'm always trying to be positive about things, so when my daughter and granddaughter died I never really grieved over them. I just kept telling myself they're still here, just not in the way I want them to be," Freedo admitted. "But to be honest I'm kind of tired of losing: people, places, things I used to do in my spare time, even spare time... we've all lost something during the invasion."
He pulled away from Lard Nar to look him in the eyes.
"But right now I feel like I gained something, don't you?"
"But I..."
"You're the son of the guy who saved my life," Freedo remarked, patting him on the shoulder. "That means you're family to me, and there's nothing you can say that'll change my mind about it."
He stood up and reached his hand out to Lard Nar.
"Laes will complain about me being too pushy, but I'm sure he'll agree too. Eventually. Once I explain the situation better probably."
"I don't deserve this..." Lard Nar murmured, turning away. "Not after I nearly got Laes killed... it's my fault..."
"You're not the one who hurt my son," Freedo insisted.
He hadn't expected Lard Nar to be this stubborn, but then again Gan Jue had been stubborn as well.
"And even if you were, I don't hold grudges. Helk, I used to play cards with the guy who stabbed me, even after he stabbed me."
"I can't accept... I'm sorry..."
Freedo straightened up and lowered his hand.
"Alright, but the invitation is always open. Also, I'll probably be joining your work crew, so yeah. Let's work together to help protect whatever is left of our planet."
Lard Nar looked up at him and managed a small smile.
"Yeah... let's do that."
Notes: This could've also been named "Freedo's Backstory." Who knew the guy had such an interesting life? Not his son, that's for sure.