Complications
Tak stared up at the sparkling night sky in awe. It was surprisingly beautiful, like a blanket of twinkling glitter, the stars glistened magnificently against the backdrop of space.
She let out a sigh. Leaning back on the palms of her hands, she dug her claws into the fresh soil of the Earth. She felt amazing. Better than she had in years. It was like every last muscle in her body was totally relaxed and the raging fury that once consumed her had finally settled down.
She felt calm. Free. And able to do almost anything she set her mind to.
Upon hearing her sigh, Zim turned over to her in concern. "What's wrong?" he asked, worried that the location he'd chosen was not to her liking. In the aftermath of their passion, he had taken her atop a grassy hill, a favorite spot of his that overlooked a quiet neighborhood below. It was a well secluded site, one in which they didn't have to worry about being out of their disguises, and the hour was shortly after midnight, so by now, most of the humans were already asleep.
She smiled contently, taking in a deep breath of fresh, crisp spring air. "Nothing," she muttered, tilting her head back to look up at the sky. "They really are quite lovely aren't they."
Zim tilted his head to look up as well. "Eh?" he asked, looking back at her.
"The stars," she added, lifting her chin to motion toward the sky. "It only just occurred to me that I haven't sat and observed them like this since I was stranded on Dirt. They really are quite exquisite from here. The humans should consider themselves lucky."
Zim glanced up at the spectacle above and felt his antennae droop. "Yes... I suppose they should," he said quietly, bowing his head in shame. The hint of sadness in her voice was a painful reminder of his greater role in her placement on Dirt and even just mentioning it made him feel worse.
Realizing her poor choice of words, Tak immediately sat up. "Zim... I'm- I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"I know," he added, already aware of what she was about to say. He turned his head turned away, waiting a moment before responding. "Tak, do you...regret being with me?" he asked.
She looked at him presumptuously. "What do you mean by that?"
He began twirling the individual blades of grass with his claws. "I mean, I am beginning to realize I have never fully admitted fault for any of your misfortunes. And because of that I thought that...that maybe..." His voice trailed off as she stared at him in confusion.
"Zim." She leaned over and reached out to place a hand over his. "The choice I made was mine. There is no need to feel shame or pity me for me."
He smiled sadly before turning his head away again. "You don't have to lie to me Tak," he added with a sigh. "I am under no illusion just how awful this place truly is. This planet a vile mud ball, full of disgusting smelly ape creatures that possess the intelligence of a walnut. And now you're stuck here because of me.
Tak pulled her hand away and she felt her expression falter as she looked at him. She tried to suppress her own emotions, but she knew what he said was true. Even after trusting him enough to get close, a small part of her still hated herself for doing it, and no matter how much she tried to overlook it, she still blamed him for ruining her life.
She continued to watch the town below in silence, and they remained that way for a long while until Zim decided to reach around into his PAK. He pulled out a small plastic tube.
"I was going to give you this earlier," he said, handing it over. "I think you will find its contents rather useful."
Tak took the object from his claws. "Paste?" she asked, bringing it to eye level.
Zim nodded. "It's how I was able to withstand the storm the night you arrived. Applying a layer of it daily will help protect you from harm. It will keep you safe during Earth's rainier seasons."
She glanced down at the tube and then back up at him in awe. Paste? Had it really been that simple? She stared at him as he quietly overlooked the empty streets.
I don't believe it. Paste? Really? How could someone like him to come up with such a brilliant solution? Him? The same guy who can't even install a control panel without electrocuting himself?
She glanced back and forth between the tube and Zim while her mind jogged a mile a minute. It was a generous gift, and one that meant a lot more to her than he probably realized. Handing her such a tool meant granting her the freedom she desired while giving up his one home field advantage. Without the paste to protect him that night in the rain, she would have surely finished him off for good.
She opened up her PAK and stored the gift before glancing over at him curiously. "You know..." she stated, inching close enough that their shoulders touched. "I have to say, you're not so bad for a maniacal, destructive, ego-centric maniac."
Letting out a small chuckle, Zim smirked at her compliment. "I could say the same about you Tak beast," he smiled, getting closer to her as well. "Even after you tried killing me in my own base. You failed horribly by the way."
She smiled and cuddled up next to him. He brought an arm to drape comfortingly around her shoulder.
They remained that way a long while, just the two of them together looking up at the stars together. It reminded Tak of the times she would gaze up from the deck of her ship, back on Dirt when she was fighting off the repulsive smell of rotting garbage. She would stare up at the heavenly bodies solemnly, bathed in the cerulean-green glow of the nearby gas giant. The planet had always seemed so far away, even though it was clearly so close, and the wide open sky behind it would taunt her, urging her to escape as it seemed to go on for miles.
She nuzzled into Zim closer, feeling the warmth of his arms wrapped around her. It may not have been the outcome she'd expected, but this feeling of closeness, this love as the humans called it, it was something she never wanted to let go of again. It was both intoxicating and invigorating, like a sweet nectar their kind poured into drinks during special ceremonies. It granted her both the strength and the confidence she needed to feel truly happy, and gave her a feeling of satisfaction like nothing else, not even outclassing every single one of the students back in basic training. It was empowering and wonderful, and she was starting to wonder why their kind ever abandoned it in the first place.
Humming a satisfied tune, she nuzzled closer to his neck. She let out a long, drawn out sigh. "Thank you Zim. I don't think I could have asked for a better Valentine's gift."
He looked down at her warmly, returning the gesture. "You are most welcome Tak."
A couple of months later
"Hey, be careful with that Space boy!" Dib shouted, watching the Irken carelessly tinker with his new invention. "I didn't bring that all the way down here just so you could break it!"
After a few weeks of spending significant alone time with Tak, Zim had finally decided to let the pestering young boy back into his base. He had grown tired of the constant badgering, and Dib had been nothing short of relentless.
Zim studied the device unimpressed. "What is this thing anyway?" he asked, rocking it back and forth in his hands.
"It's a translator," Dib explained, hoping the Irken wasn't about to ruin all of his hard work. "It's designed to take in any language from the speaker and convert it to that of the listener. It's something the rest of the human race would kill to get their hands on."
Zim scoffed. "Child's play!" he shouted, standing upright. "Relax Dib-meat, no Irken tool would ever be impetuous enough to damage this simplified design. It would need to be made of scrap metal or some other useless material in order for to-...oh wait, it broke."
Dib's face fell in horror. "No!"
He lunged to take back the device, but Zim held it just out of reach.
"Not to worry Dib stink!" replied Zim. "I can easily repair it with my trusted, GRAVITY LASER!" He turned to shout at his minion. "Gir! Fetch the laser! Quickly!"
Obeying the command, Gir chaotically ran over to grab the tool as requested. Zim held it up excitedly.
"Now watch human! Watch in amazement as I improve your puny little invention with my superior Irken knowledge of amazingness!"
Dib swallowed and stared at the Irken worriedly as the blaring windup from the machine echoed throughout the room. The tool in Zim's hand vibrated intensely, and the sounds from the machine grew louder and louder. Eventually, all that followed was a puny little bleep.
"Wait, that's it?" stated Dib unimpressed. "All you did was zap it for two seconds."
Zim rubbed his hands together. "Yes! But those two seconds made it better! And now, Dib meat, you should find that it can detect ANY possible language, including all of the horrible, ridiculous ones your race has decided come up with."
He tossed it back to the boy and Dib's eyes slanted in suspicion. "Oh yeah? So it should even be able to pick up on yours then, right?"
Zim shrugged. "I dunno. Let's test it out."
The Irken snatched back the device and muttered something otherworldly into it. Dib felt a small shock of electricity and fell to the ground with a yelp.
Gir giggled hysterically and his master joined him rolling in laughter..
"What did he say?" questioned Dib, pushing himself back up.
Tak called out from the other side of the room. "He called you a large-headed Gizzlesmort," she answered, entering with a sizable box of loose components. She seemed to be installing them throughout the base.
Dib frowned and rubbed his head in agony "That still doesn't explain why it shocked me" he groaned. "I checked all the calculations this morning. Everything should be working fine."
Tak turned away from him. "Your device simply did not know what to do with the unknown verbal cues," she explained while attaching some of the components to the wall. "Irken language is far more complex than any of those spoken here on Earth, so it most likely overloaded from the additional stimulus."
Dib frowned and turned back toward his rival who was still joined with Gir in laughter. "Ha ha, very funny Space boy," he muttered sarcastically. "Maybe next time we'll go ahead and test it on you first to see how you like it."
He began to remove the device from his ear when Tak spoke up once again.
"I can't see how you would be surprised," she said, crossing her arms in his direction. "It's not like Zim has a track record of doing things right the first time. Or ever for that matter."
Dib glanced back at the ex-invader who was now on the ground tearing up with laughter. She does have a point, he thought sheepishly. In a way, it IS kind of my fault for being stupid enough to listen to him.
Tak was about to pack up her things and leave when Dib called out to her.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" he shouted, causing her to pause in her tracks.
She turned back around.
"I've been meaning to ask you, what do you see in Zim anyway?"
Tak felt her cheeks go red and she stopped in her tracks. "I beg your pardon?" she asked, curious.
"Zim," Dib repeated, sticking his thumb out toward the Irken. "He's done nothing but talk about you for weeks! I know you hated him when you first got here, but what got you to warm up to him?"
Bristled with annoyance, Tak irritably crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't see how that is any of YOUR business, human," she answered sourly, a blush forming across her cheeks. "And why I should explain anything to you anyway? It's not like a simple Earth creature to meddle in the complexity of our people's affairs."
Dib gave her a sarcastic look. "Geez, I was just asking. Besides, meddling in Irken affairs is kinda my thing, you know?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "You know, it's funny, but you're even starting to sound like him."
Tak's face flushed in embarrassme and she threw a claw out in his direction. "Computer!" she shouted. "Dispose of this filthy Earth creature at once!"
Dib glanced up as the components above him closed in. "Aw come on," he groaned disappointedly, already feeling the powerful suction of a vacuum begin to lift him from the ground. Within seconds, the tube picked him up and his long drawn out yell could be heard infinitely as he was cast further and further out of the base.
Once he was gone, Tak dusted her hands off. "There. At least that was dealt with."
She watched as Zim approached her from the floor.
"Hey, where did the Dib-human go?" he asked, walking up to her.
Tak lifted her chin. "He stepped out," she replied, strolling past as if nothing had happened.
Over the next few days, things carried on as usual. Zim continued his work around the base and Tak went on upgrading whatever piece of tech sparked her interest. The male Irken noticed she seemed to be using projects as a means to keep herself preoccupied, and as promised, she did provide some major upgrades to sections of his base. She even went so far as to add a few of her own personal touches. His computer, for example, now operated on half the processing power it used to while responding quicker and sounded a lot less lethargic than before. And his voot cruiser, which he'd noticed was more responsive during flight, was faster and far more agile that he ever noticed before.
Things seemed to be going well. Or so he thought.
After a while, she began acting much more distant than normal, and instead of her usual eye catching glance when she passed him in the hall, she barely gave him so much as nod. When they worked together down in the labs, she remained quiet and withdrawn, almost like she was avoiding him. And when he tried questioning her about it, she simply walked away without an answer.
Eventually she would venture around the lab only when he was gone, and when she walked into a room that he was already in, she would simply leave without a word. It was like they were back at square one, back when he was meticulously trying to get her to notice him. He began placing himself in areas where she frequently visited, hoping to catch her when she was in the right mood. At first it seemed to work, but then she gradually caught on to his tactics and started changing her routines. Over time, she became much more difficult to track, and eventually he gave up altogether.
She appeared to look more and more exhausted as well. As the days went by, her stares became more focused and on edge, as if her thoughts were preoccupied with something else. It wasn't long before her nervous behavior started to take its toll on him. He began loosing his ability to concentrate and wanted to pull his antennae out when trying to figure out whatever it was that was bothering her. One evening, he even found her taking various blood samples, but refused to explained why. He found himself casually marching down the halls of the base when he suddenly heard shouting coming from the lab.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN POSITIVE! I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE!"
In an instant he was sprinting down the corridor. The voice was undoubtedly Tak's, and she sounded very angry about something.
He stopped at the entryway and poked his head around just enough to peek inside one of the labs. Sure enough, Tak was there, and she was standing in front of a small evaluation tank with a test sample of what appeared to be fresh Irken blood. It was strange in color, and looked to have some sort of foreign chemical added to it.
"No. What I said was, it was very unlikely," corrected prisoner 777. The Vortian was hovering in front of her on a floating monitor, and he too looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.
"But Zim is tank bred!" Tak shouted, trying to suppress the panic in her voice. "There's no way it should even be possible!"
"Look, I don't know what to tell you lady," 777 shrugged. "I'm an engineer, not a doctor."
Tak squeezed the test tube in hand, threatening to snap it in two. "Listen you bumbling idiot," she growled, leaning in closer. "You'd better have some answers for me soon, or I swear I will also launch your three helpless children into space!"
"What is it with you Irkens and launching people's kids into space?" 777 asked tiredly.
Tak stared back at him with a venomous glare.
He held his tiny hands up to calm her. "Alight, alright. Let's just back up and go over the details for a minute." He pulled up a list of digital files and scrolled through them carefully. "Let's see. The initial results of your blood test DID originally come back negative, but intriguingly they were different than the ones you sent me the second time around. It's as if your hormones completely rearranged themselves overnight."
"And what about the information you collected for Zim?" Tak asked impatiently. "Is there anything in there that can be of help?"
The Vortian flipped through a series of files before shaking his head. "All it says here is that to keep up with the rate of intergalactic conquest, your species built massive hatching facilities to produce soldiers on a massive scale. Most of the smeets born at that time were genetically engineered while others were simply cloned. It appears that over time, your kind gradually lost the ability to reproduce and because it was deemed an unnecessary distraction, it was fazed out entirely with the help of your PAKs."
"But that STILL doesn't explain why this is happening to ME," Tak shouted impatiently. "Why am I having this problem?"
The Vortian sighed wearily. "Well you mentioned that you ARE natural born," he explained, "so it would only make sense that you would be predisposed to such a condition." He brought a claw to his chin to think on the matter. "And Zim's PAK was determined to be defective quite a long time ago. I supposed it is possible that it never even functioned properly in the first place." He paused when he noticed an Irken's scarlet red eyes peering around the corner. "Oh no."
Tak turned around, curious to see what caught the Vortian's attention. Her eyes narrowed.
"Zim!"
She watched as his head disappeared quickly behind the wall. "I know you're there!" she shouted, demanding he reveal himself. "Just how long did you plan on spying on me?!"
"Spying?" he replied innocently, stepping out from his hiding spot. "Zim has no need for spying. I was simply...uh, checking up on you. Yes, that's it."
Tak gave him a contemptuous look. "Then what were you doing out in the hallway?" she asked.
"It is MY base, in case you have forgotten," Zim said, making his way over to her. He stopped only a few feet away. "And what's going on here between you and prisoner 777 might I ask? Some sort of secret meeting I should know about?"
"Nothing that concerns you!" Tak snapped, causing him to take a step back. She seemed unusually callous at the moment, and not in a way where he would be able to win her over with simple praise.
The Vortian cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um, it actually does kinda does concern him..."
"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS VORT BOY!" Tak wheeled around, causing him to jump.
Zim approached her catiously. "Tak?" he questioned, careful to keep his guard up. "What's going on? Are you sure you're alright?"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I'M ALRIGHT YOU IDIOT?" she shouted.
Recoiling from the sudden outburst, Zim eyed her over worriedly. "Are you sick? Because you seem sort of...not good."
Letting out a weary sigh, Tak's head sank in defeat. She knew she was fighting a loosing battle, and he was destined to find out sooner or later. Might as well get it over with.
"Isn't it obvious you idiot?" she muttered, hoping he would get the hint.
He stared at her blankly.
Straightening up, she led him over to the collection of vials and pointed out the ones scattered around the floor. "These are the various blood samples I ran over the course of the last three weeks," she explained, giving him a moment to look around. "All fifteen were tested, and all fifteen came back positive."
"Positive?" Zim cocked his head. "Positive for what?"
She stared at him sullenly, but said nothing. A good amount of time passed before either of them decided to speak.
"Tak is pregnant with a smeet Zim," the Vortian interrupted, breaking the silence. "She's been running tests to determine what can be done."
The female Irken whipped around and shot him a death glare, but he simply shrugged. "Hey, someone had to say it," he answered calmly.
Zim then turned around to face his mate. "Tak? Is that true?" he asked.
She nodded slowly.
Taking a step back, Zim suddenly felt the center of his knees go weak. "A smeet?" he muttered, doing everything he could to prevent himself from collapsing. He repeated it over and over in his head. "You're carrying a smeet? But...but how?!"
"I don't know," replied Tak, looking away. "I was hoping to figure that out."
"H-how...how long have you known?" Zim asked, shifting his gaze to her.
"A couple of weeks now. The effects have only started to become apparent in the last forty-eight hours."
Zim paced the floor anxiously, contemplating the information that was presented to him. A smeet? A helpless Irken child? One that has no way of knowing who it was or how care for itself? What do we do? How do we prepare?
He continued to stride back and forth in a panic. He didn't know how to deal with such a thing. There was no preparation or training for him to fall back on. His kind were genetically engineered to have this sort of thing prevented. And for good reason.
Suddenly, the Vortian chimed in again. "Ahem. Perhaps I can be of some assistance," he added.
Zim stopped pacing and turned around to face the monitor.
777 continued. "You are probably wondering what course of action to take about now," he said, reading the Irken's mind. "Well, the most important thing to know is that without proper surgery, Tak's life could be in danger."
"Danger?" Zim questioned. "What do you mean danger?"
"Well, if the smeet isn't removed in time, it could end up killing it's host. Or in this case Tak."
Zim stared up at him as he tried to process the information. "So what you're saying is, if nothing is done, Tak will...die?" he asked.
The Vortian nodded.
Zim suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He might be able to handle losing a smeet, but Tak? He started to weigh their options and run through all possible scenarios. Surely there had to be some other solution. Some other alternative they could fall back on.
Eventually he stopped and looked back up at the monitor. "What can be done?" he asked sternly.
The Vortian read through more details listed in the log. "The only way to ensure any chance of survival is if both Tak and the smeet return to Irk," he explained. "Supposedly they still have a facility where they carry out that sort of thing. Your kind will watch over her while they monitor her progress."
Zim's posture deflated. Irk? He felt a sudden stiffness grip his insides. No, she can't go back there. The Tallest would kill her for sure.
He felt his heart sink as he looked back at her harrowing expression. She looked just as frightened as he was.
"It's settled then," he answered, swallowing hard before stepping away from the monitor. "Tak will return to Irk."
Tak's antennae shot up. "What?! Are you insane?" she shouted, her eyes snapping to him at once. "Do you know what will happen to me if I go back there?! Do you know what the Tallest will do to me?!"
Pacing the floor, Zim ignored her protest. "You must. It's the only way."
"They'll imprison me the moment I step foot on that planet!" shouted Tak, cutting him off. There's got to be another option."
He shoved her aside. "There isn't."
Feeling her anger rise, she stopped and waited for him to turn around to face her. "You do realize that if I go back there, they will send me to Dirt right?" she asked, hoping he would get the message. "Or worse, they'll brand me as a defective or imprison me on Moo-Ping 10! Do you realize what that means?"
He turned to her with a penitent expression. "I'm sorry Tak, but it's the only way to ensure your survival. I never intended for this to happen but-"
"Of course you didn't."
He stopped and felt his stomach go numb as she cut him off. He turned to face her and she looked at him with a hateful expression.
"You never mean for anything like this to happen Zim, but you just can't help but destroy the lives of everyone, can you? Even when you try to make them better, you somehow only make them worse."
Her words cut into him like a spear piercing through his heart. He knew she was likely only reacting from the hormones, but the raw emotion in her tone told him everything he needed to know. She stated what she truly thought about him, and that hurt worse than anything he could know.
Swallowing hard, he reached out to help her. "Tak, you must understand I-"
"Don't touch me!" she snarled, shoving him away. Her emotions were starting to get the best of her and she knew he could see the uncertain, terrified look in her eyes. "Please." She begged, turning away. "You've already done enough."
He watched as she exited the lab, desperately wanting to chase after her. He wanted to find a way to make things better, to make everything the way it used to be before.
"Tak, wait I-!" He took a step forward, acting on his instincts, but was blocked by a figure that flashed into place.
He frowned at the SIR unit blocking his path. "Mimi, I command you to step aside at once!" he shouted, wanting it to move.
The SIR unit defied his orders and leered back at him with menacing intensity.
He narrowed his eyes. "Fine! But don't think this is over Mimi! I promise you, you will rue the day you ever stood up to ME, ZIM!"
Mimi snorted and turned away, satisfied that the intruder would not chase down its master. Zim watched it go and felt the state of misery wash over him again. He turned around, dragging his body back over toward the monitor. Not caring that the Vortian prisoner had just witnessed everything that happened between them, he brought his claw to hover over the release button.
777 eye's grew large. "H-hey, wait a minute. What are you doing?"
Zim slammed his fist down on the button, causing the container holding the Vortian children to open up. They cheered gleefully as they were sucked out of the lab.
777 shouted in a panic. "What did you do!? What happened to my children?!"
The Iken's voice was calm. "Your offspring have been released and will transported back to their proper caretaker on Vort," he said emotionlessly. "You should be able to contact them in a matter of weeks."
The Vort prisoner stared back at him dumbfounded. "Um, well I uh. T-thank you."
He stood there blankly, completely at a loss for words. "Zim?" he asked, causing the Irken to look up to face the monitor. "What made you change your mind? If you don't mind me asking."
Zim eyes narrowed as he glared back at the prisoner. "Let's just agree to never speak of this again," he answered darkly.
Getting the hint, 777 immediately ended the call.
Author's note: Whew! So sorry this took so long to get out there. This chapter was originally way longer, but I have decided to split it in two since this seems a good place to pause. I must have rewritten it at least twenty times before finding a version I was happy with. The previous drafts were far too fast paced and had way too much going on to make any sense. So, I had to scrap them and start over from scratch.
Also, I have no idea how two Irkens would come together to produce a smeet, but I'm a big fan of "life finds a way". And even if there was an alien race out there that tried to leave that primitive part of themselves behind, I can't imagine nature would allow that sort of thing to be forgotten so easily.
Don't forget to let me know what your thoughts were! And be sure to stay safe out there during these crazy chaotic times!
